[Newsbot]

Title: Sunshine Coast highway good for Powell River says mayor
Category: Misc CDN
Posted By: Hyack
Date: 2016-02-04 17:12:18
Canadian

[andyt]

Maybe somebody can explain to me how a road around Jervis Inlet gets you from the Sunshine Coast to Vancouver?

[Hyack]

andyt andyt:

Maybe somebody can explain to me how a road around Jervis Inlet gets you from the Sunshine Coast to Vancouver?

That's our guvermint fer ya.....a bridge over the Squamish river, north of Squamish linking up to the Port Mellon road on the north side of Howe sound would sound better even with having to punch a road to Pt Mellon....Jervis inlet....
....the guvermint has been toking up again...

**edit** This route is only good for the southern Sunshine coast, to get to Powell river you would have to somehow get around Jervis inlet which cuts between the north and south Sunshine coast....

https://www.google.ca/maps/@49.2843147,-122.9108229,8z

[andyt]

Well, it looks like you can go up the Ashlu to get to Jervis. I've been quite far up that road and then skied up Jimmy Jimmy and Mt Ashlu. I was told you can see Jervis from the end of the road. I wonder what the driving time would be for that vs the 40 minutes on the ferry from Horseshoe Bay?

[Hyack]

andyt andyt:

Well, it looks like you can go up the Ashlu to get to Jervis. I've been quite far up that road and then skied up Jimmy Jimmy and Mt Ashlu. I was told you can see Jervis from the end of the road. I wonder what the driving time would be for that vs the 40 minutes on the ferry from Horseshoe Bay?

Right now....hours and hours....farther north up the Squamish river is the Elaho river, it actually runs to the north of Princess Louisa inlet which would probably be the way to go....lots of bushwhacking to punch a road through....

[andyt]

It's about 40 mins just to get to Squamish. Either of these routes to get to Sechelt would take at least 2 hours. probably much more. Maybe they could use that for truck traffic, but I sure hope they don't lose that Langdale ferry. It makes for a good day trip by bike.

[Hyack]

andyt andyt:

It's about 40 mins just to get to Squamish. Either of these routes to get to Sechelt would take at least 2 hours. probably much more. Maybe they could use that for truck traffic, but I sure hope they don't lose that Langdale ferry. It makes for a good day trip by bike.

Really enjoyed the ride at the north end, Earl's Cove-Saltery Bay, the best BC ferry trip aside from Active Pass.

[andyt]

Only did it once on a circle route bike trip.

Active pass in a kayak was fun - I thought I was just speeding along judging by the water rushing along side, only to look up and realize I hadn't moved an inch relative to land. Had to land the boats and portage over the tip of Mayne Island to get thru.

[Hyack]

WTF were you doing in Active Pass in a fucking kayak......you sometimes give me pause to question your sanity, but a kayak in Active Pass is just too fuckin' much, especially if the tide was running, I could kinda see it at slack water, maybe, but.....

[andyt]

I dunno. Everything seemed to work out OK. The water wasn't rough, just fast. I don't remember seeing a standing wave or anything. And I think we didn't actually paddle thru the exact pass - that was the part we overlanded. Just the approach. We just had to adapt to conditions.

[BartSimpson]

My near-irrelevant suggested routes would include what I've added in red.

Note that the segment on the right shows both potential routes. I figure routing the road up at Sqaumish will save money on a hugely expensive bridge from Horseshoe Bay to Gibsons.

That route can also go from Squamish to Sechelt without a bridge.

From Earl's cove on I'm just looking at what route reduces the cost of bridge building.

Now we'll wait until the end of the year and see what these folks pick as their route.

[Hyack]

No matter what the route is Bart there has to be a bridge over the Squamish, there are 2 existing logging bridges already in place at both the Ashlu and Elaho Rivers 24 kms from Squamish for the Ashlu and about 43 km for the Elaho. On the Sunshine Coast is Pt Mellon on Howe sound which connects to Gibsons by road. As for any other roads leading east into the wilderness I'm not sure about. No matter what, there will be some serious bushwhacking needed to push through any type of road.

[Canadian_Mind]

Even just one ferry between North and South coasts will be far superior setup to the current situation where it takes 2 ferries to get to Power River. I was only there once in 2002, I can't imagine that town is any better off now.

[Hyack]

A land route to Powell river would definitely be advantageous to the town and surrounding areas, the ferry systems accomplish that quite well aside from the obvious shortcomings associated with the BC ferry corporation. I honestly cannot see a road, bridge, tunnel route being built for a great many years as the population of the entire north and south Sunshine coast is not large enough for such a major undertaking. Road access to Vancouver Island will probably be first in line as it is already well overdue.

[Canadian_Mind]

A bridge up near Campbell River could be a good idea. My biggest concern is that a bridge connection will result in even more seniors and foreigners flooding the island, driving those of us who are native to the island off of it with extremely high property prices and living expenses.