Beginning as soon as Monday, you’re going to have to find a new route if Tattersall Drive is your usual shortcut across town.
A 450-metre stretch of the east-west running road will be shut down for the entire summer while a new sewage system is installed deep underground.
Tattersall, from Savannah Avenue to Calumet Avenue, will be closed completely – except to local traffic, emergency vehicles and pedestrians – until early September.
“Normally there’s about 10,000 cars a day on Tattersall, so it’s not a very busy road,” said Jim Hemstock, manager of transportation with Saanich. “The reason we’ve got it scheduled this way is school’s out, the university’s out, so traffic volume’s lower. If we can get cleaned up by Labour Day, we should be fine.”
Once the road is reopened, it’ll remain single-lane alternating for approximately two months until repairs along the entire stretch undergoing maintenance, between Quadra and Saanich, are complete.
The infrastructure replacement is more than six metres deep at certain portions of the road, Hemstock said, which is why the complete closure is necessary.
Changes to the road won’t only be subterranean.
When completely reopened by the end of the year, Tattersall will have bike lanes, sidewalks on both sides, parking bays, newly planted trees and rain gardens.
The intersection where Saanich Road meets Tattersall will be realigned as well.
Project manager Jamie Rose said there are enough alternate routes through that portion of the community – Cloverdale, McKenzie, Quadra – that one single detour isn’t being suggested.
“We are expecting to see higher traffic volumes on several alternate routes and the network should be able to handle the change in patterns, but we will definitely keep an eye on things once we start work and make any necessary changes,” Rose said.
On Monday night, Saanich council awarded a yet-to-be-named company with the $3.1 million contract to upgrade Tattersall.
kslavin@saanichnews.com