Highway Interchange Key points.
Time savings if ramps to and from Nanaimo / Qualicum are built are estimated to be 12 Minutes and 54 Seconds to the Qualicum Interchange from Corcan.
Money Savings if ramps to and from Nanaimo / Qualicum are built 2 trips a week will Save 250 dollars a year on the average vehicle the more you go to town the more you will save. This figure does not include depreciation only fuel, maintenance and gas.
Since our first estimate of fuel savings done in 2010 gasoline prices have gone from $1.10 to $1.39. Twenty nine cents a liter in 3 years! Or 9.66 cents per liter per year, best guess, fuel prices will never go down for long.
At the rate of increase over the last 3 years in 5 years gas will be $1.88 a liter The $250 dollars a year collected in taxes to pay for the interchange will never go up, but they will go away once the project is paid for. I wish we could say the same thing for the cost of gas!!!!!!
Q When will the interchange be ready for use? A. If residents support the engineering costs (100 dollars) before September 28th best time we could hope for construction would be 2 years from now.
Q Will this highway Interchange turn our area into a suburb, we moved here to get away from that?
A. No the maximum build out of the planned lots will not have enough residents to open an elementary school on the School District 69 lot (on corner of Meadowood and Galvin). We currently have 970 homes throughout the Corcan Meadowood area with the addition of 300 more lots and a village core we would go from the current 1 bus load of elementary students to 1½ bus loads at the end of a 20 year build out Retaining our current rural feel with excellent access to local amenities, the best of both worlds!!
Q Will traffic volumes increase on Corcan and Baylis when the interchange is built.
A No, not in our lifetimes, the rezoning of land to accommodate high density in area H, would take years if any developers were even interested in battling the residents. The main development would be above Nahmint Rd. towards Meadowood Rd. 90 percent of the commuters would use the interchange dramatically reducing traffic on Corcan and Baylis!
Q The residents are only paying just over $50,000 for the engineering study where is the rest of the money for the study coming from?
A. Corporate donations and loans.
Q We have multiple emergency access points like the Ozero pit rd and the emergency gate on Nahmint why do we need the interchange.
A At the time of writing August 9, 2013 the Ozero pit road is closed to traffic and gates locked due to high fire risk, the emergency gate on Nahmint is locked requiring emergency vehicles to stop to get through and on return go 2 kilometers in the wrong direction before they can turn to Nanaimo or Parksville.
NOTE: Currently on Google maps if you drop the person icon at the Nahmint emergency exit on the freeway side you will see a semi trailer broken down and a brown truck partially blocking that emergency exit making an ambulance take even more time to get to you!!!! This is not uncommon to have parked vehicles in that emergency lane.
NOTE: Sunday January 22nd 2012 power line on Corcan road down (lying on road) because of wind storm traffic blocked from reaching homes from Nahmint to top of village for up to 5 hours. Fire department in attendance to control traffic (thanks to all of our volunteer firemen for the long cold night they put in!) Traffic was not directed back to the freeway for entrance to the emergency gate off the freeway allowing access to our homes. The Ozero Pit road was locked as it is every weekend, again not being able to use our “other” emergency access points!
Other benefits to highway 19 interchange
1. Increased property Values
2.Ability to age in place with services closer to home.
3. Ability to have increased reverse mortgage for seniors if money required.
4. If seniors are deferring taxes the interchange tax would be deferred.
Q: What is the next step when the residents goal of 50,000 dollars has been reached? A Complete the engineering phase in conjunction with Ministry of Transportation Staff and create a vehicle to be voted on by residents to fund and ensure monies borrowed for the project are obtained at the best rate and are paid back as soon as possible. Example; Improvement district.