Fifteen thousand drivers who use Wilkinson Road every day will soon have to find another route.
A full road closure from Mann Avenue to Greenlea Drive will be in effect for several months for construction of a new bridge that can withstand severe seismic stress among other area improvements.
The replacement for the 1935 Lindsay Street Bridge, which cannot be repaired, is part of a $6.5-million infrastructure package including extended trails and roadway improvements approved by Saanich council.
Harley Machielse, Saanich’s engineering director, said construction could begin within the next couple of weeks. The district will alert the public of all closings and impacts.
The bridge contractor is Victoria-based Don Mann Excavating Ltd., which bid $3,974,661. Jacob Brothers Construction of Surrey won the bid to construct the trail for $696,000. The trail now stops at Casa Linda Drive; it will be extended several hundred metres to Wilkinson Road, Machielse said.
Provincial gas tax funding will pay $5.5 million toward the cost, with another $1Â million in municipal funds.
Construction requires removal of 92 trees that will be replaced by nearly 200 within the project site and surrounding community, Machielse said.
There are no guarantees that two 125-year-old sequoia trees in the vicinity can be saved, but Saanich is committed to trying to work around the impact of construction, Machielse said.
Work to be done includes water main, storm drain, and sanitary sewer upgrades; street and bridge lighting; a pedestrian crossing with signals; rain gardens, ditches, landscaping and irrigation; masonry walls; pedestrian bridge and trail construction.
The project will include boardwalks, streamside restoration, pedestrian and cycling upgrades, including a pedestrian bridge over the Colquitz River that is part of the extension of the Colquitz Trail. It will be located near the start of the Wilkinson trail head, Machielse said.
