Friday, December 28, 2018 ~ LANGFORD
by Mary P Brooke ~ West Shore Voice News
As usual around the City of Langford, the action is fast. Back on December 11 the Transportation & Public Works Committee heard from City Engineer Michelle Mahovlich with her annual report and proposed budget for the coming year.
On Monday, December 17, Langford Council approved the 2019 budget of $5,732,839 and five-year financial plan as presented.
Within the budget is an unveiling of Langford’s transportation infrastructure plans for 2019. That includes how new 2018 infrastructure will add to 2019 maintenance costs. In 2018 there was the addition of 8.9 km of new roadways (including Bear Mountain Parkway and West Shore Parkway), 1.7 km more bike lanes, 1.6 km new sidewalks, 235 more street signs and 130 new streetlights.
The maintenance increase is about 10%. Funds for that come out of general revenues. That does not mean a 10% property tax increase, reminded Director of Finance Michael Dillabaugh. Generally, as more housing and businesses come to Langford, overall tax revenues increase accordingly, which helps cover increased maintenance costs.
Langford is a growing city with now a population of over 40,000. As new housing is developed, more road and recreation infrastructure is required.
Aging infrastructure continues to be taken care of. A lot of leaky culverts were repaired this year, with more of that to come in the 2019 maintenance program.
A few lane realignments (whether the road itself or lane markings) were done this year to help improve traffic efficiencies. There are now two lanes for turning left from Millstream Overpass onto Highway 1 (heading south), and now four left turn lanes at Jacklin and Jenkins will help support the huge Belmont Market and Belmont Residences development that comes onstream in 2019/2020.
Resulting from a traffic study done this year, a left-turn lane off Langford Parkway into the Quality Foods mall will be done in 2019 (adding about $90,000 to the budget to amend the median, include a flashing pedestrian crosswalk, and install an improved wheelchair accessible BC Transit pad). Backups there presently impede traffic flow along to Westhills and the West Shore Parkway and cause backups to Jacklin Road during rush hour.
Some reflective posts were added on a portion of Bear Mountain Parkway to discourage view-lookers who were pulling over to gaze but then their vehicles were bringing gravel back onto the road upon pulling out.
Green City Strategies for bike and multi-purpose lanes have been ongoing since 2012, usually at about $400,000 per year. For 2019 a Bike BC grant has not been received but the plan is to still go ahead with a connector from Humpback Park along Irwin Road to Goldstream Park.
Two more bus shelters were recently received from BC Transit. “They give us lots because they know we can get them installed,’ said Mahovlich. The city provides the pads. One shelter will be on Millstream across from Home Depot and the other on Jenkins between Belmont Market and Westshore Town Centre.
Langford Councillors who sit on the Transportation and Public Works committee are Roger Wade (chair) and Norma Stewart.
Langford transportation committee budget news was first reported in the December 14, 2018 issue of West Shore Voice News