Pedestrians may soon have a safe way to cross Highway 17 at Beacon Avenue, after a local committee meets with the province this fall.
The Highway 17 Joint Planning Committee has been working with the Ministry of Transportation since 2009 to get the go-ahead for construction of an overpass at the intersection, which would help ease worries about schoolchildren crossing the busy highway and connect both sides of Sidney, split in half when the ministry built the highway in 1960.
“When the province built the highway, they didn’t put in a safe way for people to cross. We’re asking the province to correct their shortcomings,” said Sidney Councillor Steve Price, who spearheaded the idea.
The overpass is estimated to cost between $1.5 to $2 million. The town of Sidney and the Victoria Airport Authority have both committed $100,000. The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) has expressed interest, but won’t specify the amount they plan to contribute until they know more about the scope and details of the project, said communications officer Adam Grossman.
Price said having committed funding partners should make the proposal more attractive to the province.
“We’re the ministry’s dream municipality,” he said.
The Highway 17 Joint Planning Steering Committee will meet with Transportation Minister Blair Lekstrom at the Union of B.C. Municipalities meeting in September.
Price said he thinks an engineering design study, which he estimates will be 50 per cent complete by the fall, will provide enough information about project cost and logistics to allow the province to make a decision.
“If we’re not there already, we must be getting pretty close.”
The overpass is part of the steering committee’s list of priorities for the highway, which it recommended to the province in April of 2010.
An August 2010 letter from Transportation Ministry Chief Operating Officer Dave Byng to Sidney Mayor Larry Cross said the then-current collision data didn’t warrant an overpass. He stated there were future plans to replace the Beacon Avenue intersection with an interchange.
The steering committee has since met with ICBC planning staff, as well as transportation engineers from the province.
The Transportation Ministry has also commissioned the engineering study, which is expected to be complete in December.
A presentation to last year’s meeting of B.C. municipalities highlighted other perceived benefits of an overpass, including the connection of Lochside Trail with the airport authority’s planned cycling trails and West Saanich Road. It would also provide pedestrian access to the proposed B.C. Transit rapid bus Park and Ride.
“It started from getting kids off of the highway, it morphed into a lot of other things, all of which will benefit the town,” Price said.
Five overpasses already exist along the highway corridor: Wain Road, McDonald Park Drive, Amity Drive, Weiler Avenue and Mount Newton X Road.
