From Tillicum Road all the way down Lampson Street, road improvements may cause more traffic congestion before they yield time-saving results for commuters, according to the township of Esquimalt.
The township says that paving work will cause delays through this week, especially between Gorge Bridge and Craigflower Road.
The work is taking place from Monday, October 23rd to Friday, October 27th, and is already underway, causing significant delays for drivers in that corridor. Esquimalt says traffic control personnel will be on hand to help direct traffic.
Traffic will be reduced to single-lane, alternating traffic from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“In addition, the signal sequencing at Craigflower and Tillicum is being reprogrammed to improve the flow of vehicles going through the intersection on Tuesday,” said the township.
“Due to the work, the intersection will be functioning as a four-way stop.”
Significant delays are expected while this work is underway.
Following the repaving, milling and reprogramming of the lights, the intersection is expected to be much more streamlined for commuters who regularly traverse that intersection.
When all is said and done on this project, Tillicum and Lampson will feature protected bike lanes, the removal of the redundant traffic signal at Head Street and Old Esquimalt Road as well as improving pedestrian crossings near that intersection.
“Good news and bad news re: Tillicum upgrades,” said a member of the Esquimalt Community Connection Facebook group.
“Good news is that it’s going to be over sooner rather than later. Bad news is that [it] looks like next week is going to be particularly bad,” he said on Friday, October 20th.
“I’m personally really looking forward to the signals being updated which I gather should really make improvements to traffic flow.”
The project is running on schedule, if not a bit ahead, according to the township.
