Re: Roadwork stressing Craigflower Road area (Letters, Dec. 11)
I agree with letter writer Lucy Bashford. The Gorge Road construction near Tillicum Road just adds to the ceaseless outage of the Craigflower Bridge.
Where is the planning here? Aside from doing all of the construction projects at once, we could also ask why a temporary span wasn’t put in place while the bridge is being built? This was done in Washington State when a bridge along Interstate 5 needed to be rebuilt.
Now, I can almost hear people say, “Oh, well that was a big highway, we’re just a mid-sized city.” Then try the little village of Latchford, Ont., where a temporary bridge was instantly put up, parallel to where the new one was being built.
There are four bridges crossing the Gorge. Closing off one of them for endless months, largely because of an “iron shortage,” could have avoided with just a bit of planning.
I can hear the money objection coming: “Oh, but you know how much it would cost to put in a temporary bridge?” To that I can only retort, “Do you know how much it costs the businesses being affected by the endless closure of the Craigflower bridge?”
Add to that the misery of clogged traffic and the rat-running of cars along small streets to avoid the intersection of Craigflower and Tillicum roads. As I stand at the bus stop on terrible Tillicum each morning, watching cyclists and cars dodge and just miss each other, I am truly surprised there haven’t been more accidents.
Ted Venema
Esquimalt