The City of New Westminster is hopeful it will have some good news to share with the community in the coming weeks about a pedestrian crossing to Queensborough.
When a destination casino was approved in the city a number of years ago, the City of New Westminster negotiated funding known as development assistance compensation or DAC. Construction of some of these DAC projects is underway or concluded, but construction of riverfront dock and facility improvements and a pedestrian bridge from the waterfront to Queensborough has yet to begin.
"There will be some new information coming forward," said city administrator Lisa Spitale. "We are at the point where we are looking at some analysis and some final numbers."
City staff recently received a preliminary engineering report about the proposed pedestrian crossing and will report to city council once they've had time to review the report and determine whether a doable and affordable crossing can be built. The city has had to consider engineering solutions for the project, as it must meet the various criteria laid out by Transport Canada and Port Metro Vancouver.
"We are looking at it very seriously," Mayor Wayne Wright said of a pedestrian connection to Queensborough. "If we can put that in, that is going to make a huge difference. People will be able to bicycle, to walk, and probably take a small golf-cart size unit across it. That opens up that whole area."
The development assistance compensation agreement provided $5 million for parkland improvements in Queensborough, $35 million for a multiuse civic facility in the downtown, $6.2 million for expansion of facility at Queensborough Community Centre, $4 million for riverfront dock and facility improvements and $10 million for a Queensborough/waterfront pedestrian bridge. Last spring, city council agreed to reallocate $8 million from the remaining two projects to the Anvil Centre project, but didn't specify how much of that money would come from the two remaining DAC projects to get underway.
