Gateway Project
Greg Carr
By Dan Ferguson
Staff Reporter
Jul 14 2006
Delta residents will just have to live with a less than ideal version
of the South Fraser Perimeter Road (SFPR) proposed by the provincial
government's Gateway program, Mayor Lois Jackson predicted Monday.
"Despite the fact it isn't the route we've chosen, it is a
necessary route," Jackson told council.
She said the provincial government is unlikely to make any substantial
changes in response to Delta complaints.
"I'm not terrifically happy about the Gateway program, but neither
is any other mayor in the Lower Mainland," Jackson added.
Her comments came after other members of council said they could not
give their unqualified support to Gateway because of concerns about the
impact of the SFPR.
At issue was a request by the Greater Vancouver Regional District and
TransLink for comments from affected municipalities.
A city engineering department report suggested council should say it
"generally" supports Gateway, wording that drew objections from
several members of council, who ordered a rewrite that will include
specific concerns about the expected loss of housing in North Delta and
farmland in South Delta.
Coun. Robert Campbell said Delta interests are being trampled by
Gateway planners who are determined to eliminate bottlenecks in freight
shipments through Delta's deep-water container port to the rest of
the country.
"We're not the gateway for our country, we're a doormat,"
Campbell said.
Coun. Vicki Huntington called the design of the North Delta section of
the road "a blight and an eyesore" that will mean the "severing
of the community from the water" because it will run along the Fraser
River.
Coun. Krista Engelland said because of the loss of agricultural land
and homes to SFPR, she "can't support the Gateway program at
all."
The planned $800-million truck route would run along the south bank of
the Fraser River from Deltaport to 176 Street and the future Golden
Ears Bridge.
The four-lane heavy truck road is designed to connect port terminals
and industrial sites along the river with Highway 1, providing a new
goods movement corridor.
It's a major part of the $3-billion Gateway program, which also
includes $1.5 billion to twin the Port Mann bridge and widen Highway 1,
and $400 million to build the North Fraser Perimeter Road through
Coquitlam, Pitt Meadows and New Westminster including a new Mary Hill
interchange and a new six-lane Pitt River bridge.
Surrey city council recently gave Gateway its qualified support,
expressing concern about the possible impact on traffic if the planned
new Port Mann carries tolls for motorists and the Pattullo doesn't.
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More than 200 homes will fall for Perimeter Road
By Jeff Nagel
Black Press
Jun 30 2006
Surrey will take the brunt of an estimated 215 home demolitions that
will be required to make way for the planned South Fraser Perimeter
Road.
Although about 65 homes are expected to be flattened in North Delta,
the current estimate for Surrey is 150, according to transportation
ministry spokesman Mike Lovecchio.
"A small number of properties have already been purchased," he said.
"There is money there for people who don't want to wait."
The planned $800-million truck route would run along the south bank of
the Fraser River from Deltaport to 176 Street and the future Golden
Ears Bridge.
The estimates have been released as part of the pre-design
consultations for the truck route. Exact properties that must be
acquired won't be known until after the next phase -environmental
assessment.
The planned demolitions have angered residents of Surrey's Royal
Heights neighbourhood in west Whalley who say they're completely
opposed to the planned perimeter road.
"There are going to be 250 to 300 people that are going to be forcibly
expelled from their homes," said Peter Chittim, president of the Royal
Heights Neighbourhood Association. "We're saying absolutely no way."
It's just the latest segment of the route where major local opposition
is brewing. Project leaders already face an uphill battle convincing
residents of North Delta's Annieville and Sunbury neighbourhoods, where
locals have been demanding a tunnel rather than an overland route.
Gateway officials have rejected tunnel calls, but say they are
adjusting the route where possible. They also say they have reduced the
number of access ramps in response to residents' calls.
Chittim said the Royal Heights residents are joining forces with other
neighbourhood associations to present a united front to Gateway.
"They've been working on us all individually," he said.
The four-lane heavy truck road is designed to connect port terminals
and heavy industrial sites along the river with Highway 1, providing a
new goods movement corridor.
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The only way the opponents are going to stop this thing is by
protesting it. I work in the transportation/warehousing industry so I
can see the need for the project but I don't see industry doing
anything to pay for it. I also remember when blocks of homes were
demolished on Sea Island in Richmond for an expansion of the airport
that never happened. This despite adamant objections from the Sea
Island residents at the time.
Container traffic at Delta Port has actually dropped this year, since
their major customer Hapag-Lloyd left, and many of the modern container
ships can't fit in the Fraser river channel. But the port authorities
like the YVR mngmt before them say it is inevitable that the growth
will happen.
The residents of Annieville and Sunbury in Delta and Royal Heights in
Surrey will be most affected by this project. If they shut down the
HUDD Distribution facilities and the other lesser foreign owned
terminals the project will not be necessary. These companies do nothing
for the community, cause accidents on River Rd and congestion and are
now using their political might to push the project through with the
govt.
Complaining to the media and MPs and MLAs as well as municipal
authorities is one course of action. Demonstrations and picketing of
the access points to the terminals is another. These companies are
powerful enough that the local newspaper media never report their names
when they are involved in news items. Instead only the unit block is
given.
bill van
"Greg Carr" <greg...@yahoo.ca> wrote:
> No thumbs-up for Gateway project
>
> By Dan Ferguson
> Staff Reporter
> Jul 14 2006
>
> Delta residents will just have to live with a less than ideal version
> of the South Fraser Perimeter Road (SFPR) proposed by the provincial
> government's Gateway program, Mayor Lois Jackson predicted Monday.
>
(snip)
> More than 200 homes will fall for Perimeter Road
>
> By Jeff Nagel
> Black Press
> Jun 30 2006
>
> Surrey will take the brunt of an estimated 215 home demolitions that
> will be required to make way for the planned South Fraser Perimeter
> Road.
(snip)
>
> The only way the opponents are going to stop this thing is by
> protesting it.
The residents of Delta and Surrey don't want to stop it. Surrey is
nearly unanimous in support of the whole Gateway project. Delta is very
much in favour of the South Fraser Perimeter Road, but not very happy
about the Trans-Canada Highway/Port Mann Bridge expansion.
In Surrey there's one neighbourhood -- the one the perimeter highway
will go through -- that doesn't like it. In Delta, they desperately want
the truck highway. It's not just for Deltaport, it's also to relieve
pressure on River Road, take some traffic off the congested existing
highways, etc. They just think it should go a slightly different route,
part of it through tunnels.
Protesting won't help at all in this case, although people should
certainly protest if they want to. Remember what happened when the
residents of West Vancouver protested the Highway 99 route? That's
right, nothing. Kevin Falcon is determined to punch these projects
through. Hell, two thirds of the municipal governments in the region,
plus the regional government, are opposed to the Port Mann project, and
that's having no effect so far.
> I work in the transportation/warehousing industry so I
> can see the need for the project but I don't see industry doing
> anything to pay for it.
Industry is promising prosperity by making B.C. the so-called gateway
between China and North America for container traffic. The Liberals have
adopted that as their primary economic strategy. To the provincial
government, the additional traffic they expect is huge payment. And if
it works, the economic activity will generate a lot of new tax revenue.
>
> Container traffic at Delta Port has actually dropped this year, since
> their major customer Hapag-Lloyd left, and many of the modern container
> ships can't fit in the Fraser river channel. But the port authorities
> like the YVR mngmt before them say it is inevitable that the growth
> will happen.
The growth will only happen -- probably -- if the facilities are there,
including the roads. If it does, though, think of what happens the next
time the Chinese economy tanks, like it did in the 1990s. That's right,
B.C. also tanks.
Port-wise, though, you have two of them mixed up. Deltaport isn't on the
river, it's on the Strait just up the coast from the Tsawwassen ferry
terminal. No problem with lack of deep water. It's Fraserport that's
having the problem with traffic being down.
>
> The residents of Annieville and Sunbury in Delta and Royal Heights in
> Surrey will be most affected by this project. If they shut down the
> HUDD Distribution facilities and the other lesser foreign owned
> terminals the project will not be necessary. These companies do nothing
> for the community, cause accidents on River Rd and congestion and are
> now using their political might to push the project through with the
> govt.
Even if nothing changes, the South Fraser Perimeter Road is a good idea
because all the truck traffic now goes along River Road, right through
those communities. The question is whether the route the Liberals have
chosen will just wreck those communities in a different way, and it well
might.
>
> Complaining to the media and MPs and MLAs as well as municipal
> authorities is one course of action. Demonstrations and picketing of
> the access points to the terminals is another. These companies are
> powerful enough that the local newspaper media never report their names
> when they are involved in news items. Instead only the unit block is
> given.
Do you mean the port authorities, which are not companies, or the
companies that do business in the ports? If you read the business pages,
they are all regularly named.
bill
TopPoster
greg...@yahoo.ca says...
>I work in the transportation/warehousing industry
baha, yeah, sure you do, that's why you couldn't pay your rent, currently live
on the streets and spend all day using the computers at the public library...
Jerome B
> plus the regional government, are opposed to the Port Mann project, and
> that's having no effect so far.
>
travel the current Port Mann??
bill van
"Jerome B" <jer...@telus.net> wrote:
Your question reveals volumes.
The inner municipalities -- Vancouver, Burnaby, New West -- are against
it because it will produce a whole lot of new traffic and dump it on
their streets, which are already at capacity. The result will be
gridlock instead of manageable congestion.
The northeast municipalities -- Port Moody, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam,
Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge -- are against it because it will foul up
regional growth patterns. Those cities are trying to densify along the
coming light rail rapid transit line. But if an expanded
Trans-Canada/Port Mann Bridge opens up the Fraser Valley, developers
will buy cheaper land along the highway and build there. The result will
be less growth in the northeast, undermining the rapid transit line, and
strip development on farm land in the valley, which will never be dense
enough to serve by transit, which means a big part of the region becomes
permanently dependent on automobile traffic and guess what? That highway
fills right up and there's no space for trucks, again.
The North Shore municipalities don't seem to have a strong
self-interest, but they're against it because they support the regional
growth plan.
Oh, and Delta's against it. Only Richmond (which got the RAV Line and
owes the province big-time), Surrey and the two Langleys are solidly for
it. People in Surrey and the Langleys mistakenly believe they can return
to the days of wide open roads if only this thing is built. Not going to
happen. The minute that highway and bridge are open, thousands of people
who used to stay home or take different routes or ride transit or travel
at other times will all get back into their cars. The highway will be
full again within a very few years -- although that can be slowed down
with tolling -- and then you reach the same levels of congestion again,
only with more cars and hence more air pollution.
Greater Vancouver needs the two new truck routes. They will take some
traffic off the No. 1 highway and reduce congestion on secondary
highways and arterial roads. You can use other ways -- distance tolls,
HOV lanes, queue jumpers, better transit -- to get some more traffic off
the highway so that trucks can actually get to where they're going. And
we need to use the river to move more of that container traffic through
the region.
The Port Mann plan doesn't work, can't work.
bill
Greg Carr
Surrey Leader and Delta Now almost never name the company just give the
unit block address. Thanks for the correction about Fraser Port and
Delta Port. I indeed had the two confused. I think dredging the Fraser
river would be a great idea but supposedly it is cost prohibitive. None
of the new 13,500 container bearing ships can fit in the channel.
Loose Cannon
waste your time..