TRANSPORTATION: Council to debate twinning of Port Mann, increasing Highway 1 traffic
FRANK LUBA
Province
Proposed Gateway program includes twinning of the Port Mann Bridge.
Vancouver will become the latest city to weigh in on B.C.’s multibillion-dollar Gateway program when council debates its response tomorrow.
Each city in the Greater Vancouver Regional District was asked to comment on the program that includes twinning of the Port Mann Bridge and increased capacity on the Trans-Canada Highway from Langley to Vancouver before TransLink and the GVRD take their final positions.
With B.C. categorically rejecting pleas for safety initiatives like photo radar on the deadly Pattullo Bridge or another solution to the Eagleridge Bluffs dilemma, the question is whether anything anyone has to say will make a difference in Victoria.
“I sure hope it does,” Vancouver Coun. Peter Ladner, who is on the GVRD and TransLink boards, said yesterday.
“It’s vitally important that the Gateway Program ties in with TransLink initiatives and the GVRD land-use Livable Region Strategic Plan.”
A Vancouver staff report notes that the Port Mann/Highway 1 widening is “contrary to existing city policy.”
“The way we’re looking at it is we should do the other things first and delay the decision on the Port Mann and then see if we actually need it,” said Ladner, pointing to coming improvements like the Golden Ears Bridge, the Evergreen Line light-rail transit and the Surrey-Coquitlam express bus service.
The staff report suggests tolls if B.C. goes ahead with Gateway. It also suggests an examination of distance-based tolls between the Port Mann and the Second Narrows Bridge.
Among other municipalities, the District of North Vancouver gave conditional support to Gateway, citing the need for tolls on the Port Mann bridge and support for the Pattullo Bridge if it is to be the free alternative, as suggested by Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon.
But New Westminster fears the proposed North Fraser Perimeter Road will become a truck expressway through its core and doesn’t want its portion of the road transferred to the province until Gateway comes up with a solution.
Jim Lowrie of New Westminster’s engineering department thinks the answer might be something like putting a roof on the road to shut out the noise and connect the city to its waterfront.
“It’s useful, developable real estate — or it could be,” said Lowrie.
