Langford’s mayor drove his powder blue 1956 Buick Roadmaster in a procession of 23 vintage cars to mark the official opening of the new West Shore Parkway on Wednesday.

The 3.5-kilometre, $22.5-million parkway links the Trans-Canada Highway and Sooke Road, providing a north-south connection between the two major arteries. The road includes roundabout intersections, cycling lanes, wide sidewalks, transit stops and artificial turf medians.

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Mayor Stew Young said the road will allow commuters to travel faster, connect businesses and goods with Langford’s industrial park, and help cut greenhouse gases by reducing gridlock.

“Opening this road creates a great economic opportunity for Langford,” Young said, predicting economic spinoffs worth $500 million.

“It connects people from Sooke up to the Malahat, it just gives us this economic zone from the Malahat all the way down to Sooke or Renfrew, and it’s exciting for the West Shore, for sure.”

The project was funded through a New Building Canada Infrastructure grant awarded in July 2015.

The federal and provincial governments each contributed about $7.5 million through the Small Communities Fund. The City of Langford was responsible for remaining costs through the city’s Road Development Cost Charge program.

Langford is also working on a second major collector road: the 3.5-kilometre Bear Mountain Parkway, which will connect the Leigh Road interchange to the Bear Mountain housing and resort development areas.

“You won’t see any more major road projects now in Langford for the next 20 years,” Young said.

He would, however, like to see some improvements elsewhere in the region.

Young threw down the gauntlet, asking residents and business owners to put pressure on the provincial and federal governments to address the Trans-Canada Highway between the McKenzie interchange and Langford, calling it a “fix now” priority.

Widening the road to get commuters out of gridlock and building high-occupancy vehicle lanes to encourage carpooling and transit use is a must, he said.

He also called for B.C. Transit to take over the E&N railway corridor from the non-profit Island Corridor Foundation “and actually get some buses or some trains on there, or at least look at the business case for it.”

The last thing that is needed is “$5- or $10-million studies or the CRD wading into this,” Young said.

“Transportation infrastructure is the most important thing a municipal government and provincial and federal government can do, so let’s get a solution here and make it happen.”

ceharnett@timescolonist.com