A hydro pole situated in the middle of a stretch of road in Colwood has confused drivers, cyclists and pedestrians, said Josh Andrews, head engineer for the city.
BC Hydro plans to remove above-ground power lines and run power underground at Veterans Memorial Parkway and Latoria Road in the Victoria suburb, but the timeline is unclear, he said.
But that timeline did not work for Colwood and there was a decision to either delay the road’s opening for an unspecified amount of time or to pave the road now and put in safety measures, according to Andrews.
“We’ve temporarily set up some safety measures around the hydro pole. But it certainly looks like an odd situation.”
He said he is not surprised at all that there have been some questions by the public about what has happened, but the decision was the lesser of two evils.
“However, I can assure everyone that that is a temporary measure.”
Owen William, a member of the Langford Voters group on Facebook, said the design choice is funny.
He said he could not understand why Colwood had sealed up the road despite the pole being in the way.
BC Hydro could take months, and a tentative date of March was given by Andrews, but he could not guarantee the timeframe as there had been nothing concrete from them, he said.
“It’s been very difficult to hold hydro to the schedules that we’ve been given. So I’m hopeful it is a number of months.”
He said that in the meantime, safety measures would be in place to ensure no accidents happen due to an errant hydro pole.
“There will be some concrete barriers and signage for now.”
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