Editor:
Given Coast Reporter’s recent article concerning a new push for Hwy. 101 improvements (“Group pushes for Hwy. 101 changes,” July 13), my suggestion is that the province not only get serious but that they consider utilizing methods used within many other nations that would save substantial amounts of funding.
The concept would be to construct a new highway from the top of the Langdale Terminal “ramp” to, at least, Sechelt, taking advantage of the existing Hydro right-of-way (or land alongside it). But rather than funding massive numbers of specific equipment resources and manpower from the Lower Mainland, and accommodating them throughout the construction phase, the province should seriously consider using local equipment and manpower to construct the new highway in segments.
We have the capability on the Coast to construct these segments, each some three to five miles in length, one segment at a time. Each segment’s finished length would be determined by the convenient location of an existing local road, which could temporarily allow traffic to connect the new highway with our existing Hwy. 101. This “segment” option would continually extend the new highway westward one piece at a time, gradually decreasing the perceived inadequacies of the current Hwy. 101, and provide sufficient time for the District of Sechelt to determine their preferred route of the new highway through or around their district.
Further benefits, both in finance and accumulated time, could accrue from the province not having to borrow the total required funds for a new highway built all at once. Under the segment sequence, provincial funds could be accumulated on an annual basis, for the next segment, from within the provincial treasury or directly from the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure.
Based on my personal experience within various rural communities across Canada, this proposed routing of the new highway would not necessarily jeopardize our Coastal urban centres and their merchants. Travelling motorists would continue to stop within the urban centres, as they desire, while the hasty motorists would stay on the new highway rather than try to force themselves through the centres, as they seem to do now.
Philosophically, this segment option seems to me to be a win-win, for the province, for Coastal residents and workers, and for the visiting and working motorists. All it seems to need is some provincial willpower, some relatively minor coordination, and much less overall funding.
Brian K. Sadler, Gibsons
