Vancouver city councillors from all parties express doubt about bridge plan and extra lane on Hwy 1
Frances Bula
Sun
The man in charge of the Gateway Project did not receive a valentine from Vancouver city council Tuesday.
In a rare show of unanimity, councillors from all parties expressed doubt and concern about the project’s plan to twin the Port Mann bridge and add an extra lane to Highway 1 from Langley to the Cassiar tunnel in the northeast corner of the city.
One after another asked whether this wasn’t just rewarding suburban councils for having created traffic problems by putting in business parks and residential developments far from transit.
Both Vision Vancouver Coun. Tim Stevenson and Non-Partisan Association Coun. Kim Capri told Gateway Project executive director Mike Proudfoot that he has a “very tough sell” ahead of him in Vancouver.
“This council has not proven itself to be united on tough issues, yet here we are speaking with one voice,” said Capri.
Proudfoot repeated several times in his 90-minute grilling by councillors that the Highway 1 changes will not bring a flood of traffic to Vancouver streets. Expanding the highway will actually make it easier to improve bus, carpooling, cycling and future rail options along the corridor, he said, while a toll on the bridge will make people think about other options besides travelling alone in their cars.
He said the Port Mann is so jammed now that buses can’t use it because it’s impossible to keep to schedules. And he said the project’s modelling of future traffic congestion predicts there will be a 17-kilometre rush-hour lineup by 2021, compared to the five-kilometre one now. That is costing the local economy $500 million a year, said Proudfoot.
But NPA Coun. Peter Ladner said people made the same arguments about the Lions Gate bridge a decade ago, claiming that “if we didn’t build a third crossing, the world would come to an end.”
In spite of pressure, the only change made was to improve, but not expand, the three-lane bridge.
“We still have some congestion there,” he said, “but somehow people work around it.”
Ladner also pointed out that according to the project’s statistics, the congestion actually hasn’t changed on the Highway 1/Port Mann bridge for the past decade, suggesting people have already adjusted.
Mayor Sam Sullivan wanted to know where the province is flexing any political muscle to demand that suburbs make some changes to “more responsible land use” in exchange for this temporary transportation fix. Both councillors Suzanne Anton of the NPA and David Cadman from the Coalition of Progressive Electors asked why the project doesn’t put more effort into other ways to reduce congestion on the bridge and highway before it starts spending money there.
Proudfoot came to council to present a brief overview of the project as part of the beginning of its community consultation, which will last until May.
Capri and others asked whether what the community has to say will make any difference at all.
Proudfoot acknowledged that it’s a provincial highway and the province can make whatever decision it feels necessary.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006