Malahat residents file injunction to stop highway safety work they say will backfire

Residents of a neighbourhood just off the Malahat Highway on Vancouver Island have filed a court injunction to stop work on safety improvements on their stretch of the highway.

Bill Eller, a resident onAspen Road, 25 kilometres northwest of Victoria, says eliminating a left-hand turn connecting his community with the highway to Victoria will increase danger, not reduce it.

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"It's a safety argument we're presenting, and we think it's a compelling argument," he told All Points West guest host Michael Tymchuk. "We think it will take the judiciary to make an impartial decision."

Safety on the Malahat has been a concern in recent years.Dividers and extra lanes have been or are being built to help address the problem.

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Presently, Aspen Road connects to a stretch of the Malahat where drivers can turn left to head southbound to Victoria which involves crossing two lanes of traffic or right, to the north, which leads to the community of Malahat.

Eller takes issue with the Ministry of Transportation's plan to eliminate the left-turn option for southbound traffic and instead force drivers to turn right, make a different left turn 800 metres up the road, then turn around in a planned new u-turn facilityjust off the highway's edge and then enter southbound traffic.

The change is necessary because the ministry is adding a second southbound lane in that area.

Eller says the changes make heading south on the Malahat more complicated, increasing the chance of a collision.

He instead wants the ministry to improve safety by implementing a protected T intersection design instead.

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All Points West asked the Ministry of Transportation for comment on this story but received none as no new government has formed since the May 9election.

Listen to the full interview:

With files from CBC Radio One's All Points West