GET MOVING BC
RELEASES ITS YEAR END “TOP TEN” LIST OF TRANSPORTATION PRIORITIES
Transportation
priorities for the Lower Mainland after the Port Mann Bridge/Highway 1,
Canada Line, Pitt River Bridge and Golden Ears Bridge projects are
completed
Vancouver, B.C.
– Get Moving
BC has just released its year end “Top Ten” list of priority
transportation projects for the Lower Mainland. The list includes major
transit projects like the Evergreen Line and Millennium Line extension
as well as bridge and road projects like a new Pattullo Bridge and a
bridge to replace the Massey Tunnel.
Get Moving BC’s
Ian MacPherson
says the list is a regional map to what needs to come next now that the
Port Mann Bridge/Highway 1 project is moving ahead and projects like the
Canada Line and the new Pitt River and Golden Ears bridge projects are
under construction.
“The region has made a lot of headway in terms of
transportation infrastructure in the last year,” says MacPherson, “and
now it’s time to look ahead to some of the other transportation projects
that need to get underway if we’re ever going to get people and goods
moving better.”
MacPherson says the Get Moving BC “Top Ten”
list includes projects that are already being talked about as well as
projects that have been on the books for so long now they’ve almost been
forgotten.
Here’s the “Top Ten” list of transportation project
priorities according to Get Moving BC:
1.
Build the Evergreen Line with an extension to Port
Coquitlam
2.
Increase bus service in underserved parts of the Lower
Mainland, such as south of the Fraser River, and
integrate communities like Abbotsford and Chilliwack into future
regional dedicated Express Bus networks
3.
Plan
ahead for an LRT line across the twinned Port Mann Bridge to 200th
Street, and perhaps into Langley, to allow communities south of the
Fraser to plan for future density around proposed LRT stations.
4.
Fast track the North Fraser Perimeter Road and encapsulate
Front Street for the revitalisation of New Westminster’s waterfront and
downtown
5.
Replace the single-lane Bailey bridge between Coquitlam and
New Westminster, widen Braid Street through the Braid Industrial area
and provide grade separation between the roadway and railway tracks
6.
Extend the Millennium Line westward along Broadway to UBC
7.
Build a new Pattullo Bridge and the Stormont connecter to
connect McBride Boulevard in New Westminster with the newly-improved
Highway 1 in Burnaby
8.
Build the Tree Island bridge to connect the Alex Fraser
Bridge and Highway 91A to the Marine-Byrne Road intersection
9.
Build a new bridge to replace the Massey (Dease Island)
tunnel
10.
Build a new bridge across the Fraser River between the Port
Mann Bridge and the Pattullo Bridge
MacPherson says all of these projects are important
in moving people around the Lower Mainland in an environmentally and
economically sound way, and no single project on the list is really more
important than any of the others: “The goal is to get people and goods
moving in the region and it shouldn’t be an ‘us’ versus ‘them’ thing.
We have to work together to solve our transportation problems and we
have to do it in a way to works for everyone.”
MacPherson says he’s pleased that relief is on the
way for frustrated commuters and that options will soon be available,
but he adds that we can’t stop there.
“Now that we have some momentum going we have to
keep it going,” says MacPherson. “We can’t afford to let things get as
bad as they did with our transportation infrastructure ever again; we
can’t allow ourselves to get that far behind ever again.”
– 30 –
Get
Moving BC is
dedicated to holding governments accountable for a balanced
transportation system and was formed to provide a voice for the majority
of Greater Vancouver residents who support improving our roads, bridges
and transit systems.
For
more information please contact Get Moving BC’s media desk at
604-678-5567 or by email at
info@getmovingbc.com
Online References and Attachments:
·
www.GetMovingBC.com
