WATCH: Traffic snarled due to construction of the bike lane project downtown Victoria. Major streets were down to one lane for most of Thursday.
Several streets in Victoria were down to one lane Thursday for construction.
Parts of Douglas Street, Blanshard Street and Pandora Avenue were down to one lane from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday.
Some local shop owners say the construction is hurting their business.
“The parking lot is empty as no one can get in,” says Gord Oliver of Frank Whites Scubba Shop, “everyone’s getting frustrated by it. Who really wants to come downtown? And we need parking because our gear is all quite heavy.”
The work is part of building Victoria?s protected bike lanes along Pandora Avenue, expected to open early next month.
The City says when the project is complete, it will include a two-way, physically protected bike lane with new traffic signals for bikes with a combination of on-street parking spaces, bollards, and paint used to separate the bike lanes from vehicle traffic.
Construction started in the 500 block of Pandora in October and is moving east past City Hall and ending at Cook Street.
Construction is expected to wrap up by the end of April.
Isabelle Raghem
