Drivers are being advised to expect nightly lane closures in each direction along the Pat Bay Highway starting Thursday, as work is set to begin on the $77-million Keating flyover project.
Single-lane traffic will be in effect for north and southbound traffic between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Starting Saturday, the southbound on-ramp from Keating Cross Road to Highway 17 will be closed.
Drivers will access the highway via a detour from Central Saanich Road to Tanner Road, and truck traffic will be detoured to Central Saanich Road along the existing truck route.
On June 8, access to Martindale Road from Highway 17 will be permanently closed. Access will be available from Gliddon Road.
Overpass construction is expected to start in the coming weeks, with the new overpass at Highway 17 and Keating Cross Road expected to be in use in two years.
The northbound left turn onto Keating Cross Road will be replaced with a separated overpass designed to improve access and make the highway safer.
The project will also include realigning the southbound on-ramp to Victoria, widening Keating Cross Road and adding sidewalks, as well as the installation of bus-on-shoulder facilities to support future rapid transit on the Pat Bay Highway.
The province has said the flyover design was chosen over a full interchange because it has the smallest footprint of the design options and would require the least amount of land in the Agricultural Land Reserve.
FlatIron Constructors Canada — the company behind the 10-lane Port Mann Bridge over the Fraser River and the curved Park Bridge over Kicking Horse Canyon in Golden — has been awarded a $54.5-million construction contract for the Keating project.
The $76.8-million total budget, which includes money for buying land, engineering and design, is up sharply from the estimated $44.3-million cost announced in 2019, due to the increased cost of land procurement and construction materials.
The province is contributing $57.6 million of the total project cost, with $16.7 million coming from the federal government and $2.5 million from Central Saanich.
The project, identified in the South Island Transportation Study as a priority, is expected to improve safety and traffic flow, reduce idling times, handle increased traffic demand and improve access to the Keating business and industrial area.
In 2021, the last year for which statistics were available, the intersection of Keating Cross Road and the Pat Bay Highway saw 10 crashes.
There were 49 crashes between 2017 and 2021, ranking it fourth for intersection collisions on the Saanich Peninsula, behind Sidney’s Beacon Avenue and the Pat Bay, which saw 152 crashes over the five-year span, Mount Newton Cross Road and the Pat Bay, which had 134, and Island View Road and the Pat Bay, which saw 95 over the same period.
aduffy@timescolonist.com
