New Westminster is going solo in a plan to install a temporary Bailey bridge in the Braid industrial area.
The city had been talking to the ministry of transportation about borrowing a bridge from the province and spent more than $30,000 in materials and equipment in anticipation of its arrival. Transportation Minister Todd Stone informed the city the ministry would lend the city a temporary bridge, but only if it agreed to accept a second crossing at the location.
New Westminster city council wrote to the minister, asking that he reconsider the conditions being imposed on the city.
“The city has not received any further response from the ministry. We have sourced another temporary bridge and are taking steps to have it prepared and ready for installation,” Jim Lowrie, the city’s director of engineering, said in a May 29 email to The Record. “I do not have a firm timeline but expect it should be two to three weeks.”
The ministry of transportation confirmed Stone had received the letter from Mayor Wayne Wright, but his original offer still stands. In an email to The Record, the ministry stated that its offer is still available and conditional on New Westminster agreeing to install a second temporary single-lane bridge to allow for “critical” two-way traffic flow.
According to the ministry of transportation and infrastructure, these two single-lane bridges would represent a “significant interim safety and mobility improvement” for drivers until a permanent crossing can be implemented.
Two crossings, however, is contrary to the city’s position of opposing an expansion of capacity in the Braid Street corridor. In a May 14 letter to Stone, the city had asked that the province allow it to use a temporary crossing that’s located in the ministry’s facility in Cloverdale.
“They have literally taken our ability away to get that bridge. So it’s plan B. We will just have to get another bridge,” said Coun. Chuck Puchmayr. “We have to open that corridor, at least in the same capacity it was. That was our intention all along. I believe it would be open right now if there was cooperation. We have to get that done.”
City officials told The Record in April that a borrowed bridge was expected to be installed in May. The existing bridge has been closed to vehicle traffic since the beginning of March because of concerns about its structural integrity.
Earlier this month, Stone told The Record his proposal is a “tremendously good deal” for the people of New Westminster as the province is putting $2 million in value on the table for two temporary bridges. He said New Westminster won’t have to pay any costs related to the second crossing because Coquitlam offered to contribute up to $800,000 towards those costs.
“We believe that the appropriate solution for this corridor is a two-lane bridge. The arbitration will determine whether the long-term solution is to be one lane or two lanes. That arbitration process will continue,” he told The Record May 8. “New West doesn’t have to accept our offer here. If they don’t then they can proceed accordingly with an alternative solution, which would be the acquisition of a Bailey Bridge from some other source, at a cost to the taxpayer, and they can explain to their taxpayers why they are saying no to $2 million worth of infrastructure, albeit from a temporary perspective while the arbitration continues.”
The Bailey Bridge has been a longstanding conflict between New Westminster and Coquitlam, with local officials preferring a one-lane crossing and Coquitlam wanting a crossing with at least two lanes. New Westminster officials are concerned about bringing more traffic into the already congested Braid and Brunette corridor, which also has several railway crossings.
“I think Todd Stone is the one who needs to do some soul searching here. He is going to have a completely free bridge available for us to use to open up that corridor again, make it safe and then for absolutely no reason whatsoever is holding it back from us. It is Todd Stone that is imposing this on the taxpayers of New Westminster, not New Westminster.”
An arbitrator has been appointed to help settle the longstanding dispute about whether the area should be served by a single- or two-lane permanent bridge. A decision is expected by July 1.
