The Braid Business Association is urging the City of New Westminster to show leadership and push for a regional resolution to the address transportation woes in the vicinity of the Bailey Bridge.
Members of the business community recently met with city officials to discuss options for dealing with the aging, single lane bridge that connects New Westminster to Coquitlam via the Braid industrial area. While options proposed have included construction of a new one-lane bridge and a new two-lane bridge, the association's preferred option is for no bridge at all.
Instead of a constructing a new crossing to replace the existing structure, the association supports a continuation of United Boulevard through the Canfor property that's owned by Port Metro Vancouver. The road would continue along the south bank of the Brunette River and connect directly to Canfor Way on the south side of the existing structure that carries Canfor Way across the Brunette River.
"This options would involve acquiring property from Port Metro Vancouver from the Canfor mill site holdings for the road right-of-way, construction a roadway and developing a T-intersection that will allow the orderly egress of local industrial area traffic out through Braid at Brunette," stated association president Russ Bain in a letter to city council.
On Monday, council approved a recommendation from Coun. Jamie McEvoy that the city reply to the association's letter, with staff outlining preferred steps and preferred options for further consultations.
In February, the City of New Westminster closed the Bailey Bridge after an engineering assessment revealed the bridge had a crack in one of the structure supports, something the city attributed to excessive wear and tear. The cities of New Westminster and Coquitlam worked together with the contractor, and shared the costs to have the repairs done.
Although the bridge reopened a few days later, new load restrictions were in effect that limited vehicle traffic to 15 tonnes maximum - meaning heavy commercial trucks are no longer permitted to cross the bridge.
Coquitlam city council has been pushing for an immediate replacement of the one-lane Bailey Bridge with a new two-lane bridge, but New Westminster believes a two-lane bridge would worsen the longstanding traffic issues that exist in the industrial area and Braid/ Brunette corridor.
Mayor Wayne Wright said a one-lane bridge with a pedestrian walkway is the "most serviceable and the right thing to do" at this time. He said the city needs to gather more information about all the changes proposed in the area - including development at the Canfor industrial site and the Beedie Group's nearby residential development.
While there may be an opportunity to put a new road system through the industrial area, Wright said more information is needed before that can be done.
"I do agree we should be looking at all the alternatives, just as we are for the Pattullo Bridge, just as we have always done for the North Fraser Perimeter Road and all those things. When we get the real answer, that's the one we are going to stick with and were going to try and champion right to the end," he said. "They (staff) are doing all sorts of analysis. Plus we are still getting the counts on the cars."
Wright said the 40-to 50acre Canfor site will be utilized in the future, which will mean improvements need to be made to the transportation infrastructure around Braid Street.
"What we have done is repaired the bridge. I think we've got 24 to 30 months that we can use it," he said. "In the meantime I am in discussions with the mayor of Coquitlam. We are discussing what our two positions are, why they are and the way they are. They had a motion on their council that they would only support a two-lane bridge. When you take a look at all the numbers and all the things that would happen it would just make the Braid Street itself more unusable."
If a new one-lane bridge is built in the area, Wright said it doesn't have to be a temporary bridge.
"The Bailey bridge is a time-useful bridge, that's 15 to 20 years. A new bridge would be there as long as it has to be. It could be built so it could have an addition put onto it in the future if the rest of the transportation needs in that area are taken care of," he said. "The big thing is you have a four-lane highway going into a one-lane now. That should never have been done in the first place. Who is it servicing? Out of the 10,000 vehicles a day - we have this all documented - 1,000 are trucks and 9,000 are cars. I don't think it was made to have a shortcut to go through there."
Wright recently met with representatives from Stella-Jones, a company located on the Coquitlam side of the Bailey Bridge that manufactures utility poles and railway ties. He said the company has concerns about access, as its trucks can no longer drive over the Bailey Bridge because of weight restrictions.
"They supported a one-lane bridge that was strong enough to take their trucks, and to work with seeing how do we make that industrial area an industrial travel-way, rather than a commuters' bypass," he said.
