With the provincial government looking at possible roadway widening and destruction of habitat in the Goldstream area, we need to look again at building a bridge between the Saanich Peninsula and the Mill Bay area.

A major undertaking, but it would solve many current problems that keep surfacing with the Trans-Canada Highway on the Malahat.

We all know the issues of increasing traffic, only one highway between Greater Victoria and the rest of Vancouver Island, plus the frequent closure of the Malahat for various reasons, plus what happens to that area in our pending big earthquake.

A bridge between the Saanich Peninsula and Mill Bay would take away the reason for destroying valuable habitat at Goldstream. A lot of traffic would avoid using the Malahat and would use the bridge instead.

When the next closure happens on the Malahat due to a traffic accident, rock slide, washout from an atmospheric river or any other reason, we would still have a secondary route.

Too costly? Our various levels of government have no problems building bridges, new Skytrain connectors, new highways and revamping the George Massey Tunnel. Lots of government money has been spent in the Lower Mainland to solve its traffic issues.

The last major renovation on the Island was the highway improvement in the 1990s. We are overdue for serious money. Before we haul heavy construction equipment to the Goldstream area and start blasting away, we need to look to our real future needs and consider a bridge that could be built to modern earthquake standards.

The........

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