The corner of Jacklin Road and Jenkins Avenue will look quite different in the near future.
Work is underway for road improvements that are part of the Belmont Market development slated for the site that once housed the old Belmont secondary building in Langford.
“We’ll have signs going up in that area next week,” said Michelle Mahovlich, Langford’s director of engineering.
Improvements to the area, required by the City during the rezoning process, will see owner Sobeys Inc. responsible for constructing a new municipal road that will run through the site, starting near the Sooke School District’s office on Jacklin Road, loosly following the Galloping Goose Trail and connecting with Jenkins Avenue roughly where the old student parking entrance was.
The phased road work will then see traffic partially or fully diverted down that new road while crews work on Jacklin Road. Powerlines on the west side of the road will be relocated underground to make way for improvements such as a sidewalk and bike lanes on both sides of the street. More signalized intersections, additional lanes and frontage improvements are also in the works for the area.
“It’s a pretty extensive [project] with over $10 million in road improvements,” Mahovlich said. “We don’t want the new road ripped up in the future.”
Which is why several parallel projects will also be completed while that work is underway. The City will be extending sewer lines on Jacklin Road between Jenkins Avenue and the Galloping Goose Trail as well as on Terlane Avenue by West Shore Environmental Services and the Capital Regional District’s Integrated Water Services will also replace two water mains in the area. “It’s a very complex project with everything that’s going on,” Mahovlich added.
All of this work is expected to be completed by spring 2018.
Work is already underway on the site and Mahovlich noted that grading has almost been completed in preparation for the new roadway.
Sobeys applied for a development permit last spring and is now in the process of working with the City’s engineering department on these road improvements.
The company has not yet applied for a building permit, which would be required before construction starts on any of the proposed buildings.
Plans released last year for the mixed-use development include three main commercial areas featuring a roughly 250,000-square foot shopping centre that highlights an almost 53,000-square foot Thrifty Foods grocery store.
Sobeys, Thrifty Foods’ parent company, purchased the property from the Sooke School District in 2014 for $23.25 million. Sobeys also acquired a lot at the corner of Jacklin Road and Jenkins Avenue that was not owned by the school district.
The roughly 22 acre site spans from the corner of Jacklin Road and Jenkins Avenue west to the school board offices and east to Brittany Drive while bordered south by the Galloping Goose trail.
The entire site will be accessible from several entrances on Jacklin Road and Jenkins Avenue, including a new signalized intersection that will be installed roughly where the Westshore Town Centre access is between Jacklin Road and Brittany Drive.
A Sobeys representative noted there are no updates regarding the development or the timeline for store openings at this time.
