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Traffic experts owe the Peninsula

Had wisdom prevailed this interchange should have been situated at Ocean Avenue.

It was the era of one of Sidney’s “finest politicians” who was in charge from 1991 to 1996 and ran on the platform of “no highway interchange” for Sidney as it was not necessary.

It was known that the monies for this project were ready and waiting. My goodness, what a lack of foresight.

Over the years the Pat Bay Highway system has seen major improvements to disperse the ferry traffic at Lands End Road and Wain Road. Both were common sense solutions to alleviate traffic problems.

Along came Spaghetti Junction overkill at McTavish Road, which is so complicated that even Google Earth cannot sort out the route with their yellow line marking.

This was a political boondoggle, costing millions of dollars, to handle a few hundred cars on route to the Victoria International airport at a few peak periods of the day.

Had wisdom prevailed this interchange should have been situated at Ocean Avenue to resolve the Sidney, ferry and airport traffic, saving millions of dollars.

Bill Zonnenburg, a Sidney resident and traffic engineer, offered a wonderful solution which was supported by the then-recently elected Mayor Larry Cross.

Someone brought it to the table at a public meeting and the feedback from airport experts was one for the books — it would require tunnels to avoid the eventual new runways.

But because of the ground water level on the airport land it would not be feasible.

I asked one expert if they had ever heard of pumps.

So I say to those now running the show, make sure you can see the long distance …. (Quebecois phrase)… and get it right with a good old fashioned cloverleaf for the Sidney exchange.

Yes, sure, it will take a little bit more land but the experts owe Sidney and North Saanich citizens.

Graham Scholes, North Saanich