Highway 18 is a short, 42 km (26 mi) long main vehicle route in the Cowichan Valley Regional District on Vancouver Island, connecting the city of Duncan on the Trans-Canada Highway with the community of Youbou, on the north shore of Lake Cowichan. The highway first opened to vehicle traffic in 1953, and was re-routed to a straighter and wider alignment in 1970. An 80 km/h (50 mph) construction speed limit is in effect for the majority of the route because of problems on the highway. No passing is allowed there.
In Late 2006, drivers using Highway 18 experienced broken parts (such as windows with big shatter marks) on their cars, most of these came from loose rocks after passing other drivers. This has generated anger, and is called the "Sealcoat Job" because of the bad gravel sealcoating of the stretch to Duncan from the Cowichan Lake Road junction at Lake Cowichan by the new highway contractor company.
In early 2004, a proposal was brought forward to extend Highway 18 west from Youbou, all the way along existing logging roads to the community of Port Renfrew on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island, as a way of rerouting traffic from the northern part of the Island to Victoria in case of a bad accident or any other extraordinary event forcing a closure of the Malahat, a steep section of the Trans-Canada Highway just north of Victoria.
|
Famous quotes containing the words british, columbia and/or highway:
“The earth is mankind’s ultimate haven, our blessed terra firma. When it trembles and gives way beneath our feet, it’s as though one of God’s cheques has bounced.”
—Gilbert Adair, British author, critic. quoted in: London Sunday Correspondent Magazine (Dec. 24, 1989)
“Although there is no universal agreement as to a definition of life, its biological manifestations are generally considered to be organization, metabolism, growth, irritability, adaptation, and reproduction.”
—The Columbia Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition, the first sentence of the article on “life” (based on wording in the First Edition, 1935)
“In one notable instance, where the United States Army and a hundred years of persuasion failed, a highway has succeeded. The Seminole Indians surrendered to the Tamiami Trail. From the Everglades the remnants of this race emerged, soon after the trail was built, to set up their palm-thatched villages along the road and to hoist tribal flags as a lure to passing motorists.”
—For the State of Florida, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)