To the Editor,
re: Highway 4 upgrade ‘overdue’, Letters, Dec. 27.
This highway overdue letter just baffles me. We all know a secondary or upgraded route would benefit our community drastically. The proposed cost was $25 million and was rejected but yet the government has approved a $27 million-dollar upgrade for a 1.5-kilometre stretch near the Ucluelet Junction. This is just baffling.
I have lived all over B.C. and now call Port Alberni my home for the last decade and our highway is the worst I have driven. Every other required chain up area has exactly that. An area to safely pull over and chain up as well as big bright yellow signs with flashing lights that when the lights are on it means danger ahead, you must chain up. As of now this is impossible in both directions.
We all know the Hump (Alberni Summit) can be deadly but the fact is that usually the conditions at the bottom do not dictate the conditions at the top, so you get halfway up and the flurries hit. After you’re fully committed, please tell me where the commercial trucks and commuter cars are supposed to safely pull over and chain up and prepare?
This is just ridiculous and so for $25 million we could have a second route out of town or a commercial route but for $27 million we get a 1.5 km stretch. Whomever put this together is a real gem. Nice work.
R. Primavera,
Port Alberni