A portion of East Columbia Street will be closed to motorists from August to November to pave the way for the Royal Columbian Hospital expansion project.
Jacqueline Blackwell, director of public affairs and communications, said a storm line is being installed down the centre of East Columbia Street as part of the Royal Columbian Hospital redevelopment project. To enable this work to take place, East Columbia Street will be closed, starting at Simpson Street and ending at Sherbrooke Street, from August to early November.
“We are actively working with the City of New Westminster on traffic management plans and are updating signage as we continue to receive feedback,” Blackwell said in a statement to the Record. “We will issue construction notices as the work progresses north along East Columbia Street throughout the duration of the project.”
Blackwell said Fraser Health appreciates the patience of people living in and commuting through the area.
The road closures, which began this week at Simpson Street, resulted in a number of comments on social media and calls to city hall about vehicles shortcutting though Sapperton streets.
“We have had quite a bit of feedback. People have been really open about sharing their observations and experiences,” said Lisa Leblanc, the city’s transportation manager. “It’s really important that people understand that the intention is not for through-traffic to divert to local streets. We have been working with the contractor to ensure that the traffic management plan that had been approved is implemented as approved. But we are also asking them to observe and to respond when they see things like impacts to local streets because the intention is not at all for through traffic, in particular, to be diverting onto local streets. We don’t want to see that happening.”
Leblanc said the City of New Westminster and Fraser Health worked collaboratively on the development of a traffic management plan.
“In this case, because it is a very involved closure and we are a very small shop here at the city, we also required that they hire a traffic engineer and a traffic control company that does regular monitoring. It’s meant to be out there on the street observing and making sure that local streets, in particular, are being protected from the impacts of a closure like this,” she said. “It’s a little bit different than a typical development project because it is very impactful and it is very large change.”
Steps have been taken to respond to concerns raised by residents during the first week of construction.
“We have already taken some steps in the last couple of days, working directly with the contractor to have them add some additional signage, but also some additional traffic control personnel to actively direct people onto alternate routes that aren’t the local streets,” Leblanc said. “We have been out there quite a bit in the last few days.”
The project began on the section of East Columbia Street near the alleyway between Simpson and Keary streets. As the six-phased project proceeds, there will be “rolling full road closures” between Simpson and Sherbrooke streets.
“The rest of the street is impacted by that because when you close a piece of the street, the rest of the street feels that impact. You can’t just divert where you encounter the full closure – the vehicles that are travelling through need to divert sooner than that so they are not coming upon the closure and then veering off onto a local street,” Leblanc said. “People can expect the worksite itself to move north along East Columbia as the work progresses, but they should be thinking of East Columbia as fully closed; particularly if they think of East Columbia as a through-route through that part of the city, they have to remove that expectation from their thinking. East Columbia is not a through route.”
Leblanc said signage has been erected to inform motorists of the need to divert to Brunette Avenue or Braid Street/Eighth Avenue. She said the B.C. Trucking Association has also been asked to get the information out through its communication channels and radio stations have been informed of the road closures.
“I think it’s really important that people are aware of it, certainly, and that they plan ahead to take an alternate route,” she said. “If they are just travelling through, please use Brunette Avenue or Eighth Avenue and Braid Street, please don’t use the local streets to get through this area. It impacts residents, and it is not fair to those residents.”
Leblanc noted there are other ways to get around the city than in motor vehicles.
“This particular area is extremely well-served by transit. We are taking transit into consideration really carefully. We have made provisions to ensure that walking and cycling can happen,” she said. “Please use alternate modes, and if you can’t then go around and ensure that the people that live in Sapperton aren’t impacted by motor vehicle traffic diverting onto local streets.”
According to Fraser Health, patients, emergency vehicles, and staff who need to access the hospital during construction can continue to do so at all existing entrances.
“Emergency and general purpose traffic to Royal Columbian Hospital is an absolute priority,” Leblanc agreed. “That will always be available.”
Leblanc said it’s a “challenging” project as it requires a dramatic change to the traffic patterns in the area.
“Just for context, East Columbia carries about 12,000 vehicles per day. It’s also designated as a truck route. So, not only are we shifting general purpose through travel, including trucks, off of East Columbia, we are also shifting the neighbourhood level or the neighbourhood-to-neighbourhood type of traffic off of East Columbia. It is not an insignificant number of vehicles,” she said. “Having said that, for context, when you look at Brunette Avenue – Brunette Avenue carries about 45,000 vehicles a day. So relative to Brunette, East Columbia is a pretty small street. But relative to a typical local road, it obviously carries quite a bit more traffic.”
For more detail on the project or to sign up for construction notices and project updates, go to fraserhealth.ca/royalcolumbian.
