In the pantheon of long-running news stories, it’s hard to top “Ganges Hill repaving plans.”
Indeed, the Beddis-to-Seaview stretch of Fulford-Ganges Road has been specifically on Salt Spring’s radar since well before 2013, when consultants for the Capital Regional District (CRD) concluded one could flank the roadway with a pair of bike lanes –– and lay a sidewalk on one side –– for $2.3 million on the low side, not including any property purchases that might be needed.
More than a decade later, with many local advocacy efforts recounted in dozens of Driftwood stories –– and with the movement of a decimal point one tick to the right on the price tag –– a section of Salt Spring’s busiest road may soon no longer require cyclists and pedestrians to take their lives in their own hands when choosing to use it.
There will be no sidewalk, and both of the new shoulders are not technically wide enough to be called bike lanes; but with more room to share the road, significant and much-needed sub-surface strengthening, and an underground storm-sewer drainage system that should resist even the roughest climate-change-addled storm, we feel Salt Springers who have advocated for safety here deserve recognition.
Perhaps most visibly our Local Community Commission, and before them the now-defunct Salt Spring Island Transportation Commission (SSITC) and Salt Spring’s CRD director Gary Holman, worked to keep the issue in front of regional and provincial decision-makers. But the local stakeholders –– as well-organized as Island Pathways or as improvisational as our ardent pedestrians –– also helped literally pave the way through their dedication, and their voices.
At the risk of taking a victory lap before the first backhoe arrives, we see the challenge now –– apart from deciding how to handle the inevitable rush of cars parking up the hill on summer Saturdays –– lies in deciding what’s next. As former SSITC commissioner Gary Lehman said about this project, we don’t want the best we can get, we want what’s best for Salt Spring.
Hopefully we won’t have to wait another 10 years to find out which of those two options we got.