New Westminster city council feels the Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation validates the city’s position on a new Pattullo Bridge.
The mayors’ council has approved a 30-year vision and identified the first 10 years of transition investment priorities for Metro Vancouver. The transportation strategy, estimated to cost $7.5 billion over its 30 years, calls for a new tolled four-lane Pattullo Bridge, new light rail transit lines in Surrey, an extension of the Millennium Line along the Broadway corridor to Arbutus, a 25 per cent increase in bus service, maintenance and upgrades to the 2,300 kilometres of the region’s major road network to keep vehicles and goods moving, and expansions to SeaBus service, HandyDart service, West Coast Express and existing SkyTrain lines.
Mark Allison, the city’s manager of strategic initiatives and sustainability, said the plan recommends that the Pattullo Bridge be replaced as soon as possible with a new four-lane bridge. While the bridge would be designed in a way that doesn’t preclude future expansion to six lanes if need arises, he said any future expansion would require “all-party agreement” and mayors’ council approval.
“It’s not a Trojan horse,” he said of the bridge option being proposed.
The mayors’ council believes a new four-lane Pattullo Bridge will create a safer, faster and more reliable connection to Metro Vancouver.
“It will have modern lane widths, better connections, a centre barrier and high-quality cycling and pedestrian facilities,” states the mayors’ council’s website. “The new bridge will be designed to keep the possibility of future expansion to six lanes, if need arises, to meet demand increased beyond current forecasts.”
Other proposals that would impact New Westminster include increasing SkyTrain capacity, providing more frequent bus services and investing an additional $26 million a year in the major road network.
Allison said Transportation Minster Todd Stone asked the mayors’ council to produce a 30-year vision and a 10-year funding plan by June 30. Without that plan in place, he said it wouldn’t be possible to have a referendum about transportation and transit funding before the next provincial election.
Coun. Chuck Puchmayr wants the provincial government to put an end to its demand for a referendum. He presented council with a notice of motion to ask the premier to reconsider the province’s position of seeking a referendum regarding the 30-year vision and 10-year funding plan.
“If this plan is put to a referendum and is defeated, it will set back our transportation in this region by more than 30 years,” he said.
Coun. Jonathan Cote said the transportation plan presents an “outstanding vision” for the transportation challenges the region is going to face over the next generation and is well aligned with the goals and targets in the city’s master transportation plan.
Cote said the vision is “critically important” to the region’s livability, economic systems and transportation. If the referendum fails, Cote said people in the region will be stuck in congestion and people won’t have options to get around.
“The divisive nature of the referendum put it in jeopardy,” he said.
A staff report presented to city council Monday states that six revenue sources are proposed to fund the additional $400 million required annually by year 12 of the plan: a reallocation of the transportation-related carbon tax now collected by the province within the region; a new regional carbon tax; a toll on the Pattullo Bridge when it is replaced; an average two percent annual transit fare increase; mobility pricing, including distance-based road charges; and land value capture – a mechanism that allows TransLink to retain a portion of increased land values related to transportation investments.
“It’s a good news story,” Mayor Wayne Wright wrote in an email to The Record. “The province gave us the task to ‘vision transit in the future and how to fund it,’ and as vice-chair of committee, I am very pleased to have completed the task with the majority of (the) mayors’ council in agreement.”
The announcement about the mayors’ council’s recommendation came on the same day the B.C. Automobile Association named Pattullo Bridge to its Top 10 Worst Roads list for 2014, as voted on by British Columbians. While roads in the Okanagan took the top four spots on the list, several routes in the Lower Mainland made it onto the list, including the George Massey Tunnel (number five) and the Pattullo Bridge (number seven).
