April 28, 2006

Highway expansion aimed at bolstering B.C.’s competitive edge

WARREN FREY

staff writer

VANCOUVER

B.C.’s plan to bring its roads up to snuff for global competition includes a $210-million government initiative to expand three highways near the Lower Mainland’s border with the U.S.

But to do so, the government will have to work on a hard solution to a soft problem.

“As of now, getting on the highway is a maneuver not for the timid.”

Jack Stuempel - BIP

The biggest challenge for the Border Infrastructure Project (BIP) is soft soil throughout the area, said BIP official Jack Stuempel.

“Because of the nature of the soil, you have to ‘pre-load’ the area, which means putting a bunch of fill on the highway and then letting it settle before paving,” Stuempel said.

But once the highways are ready to pave, the expanded capacity of the roads should keep goods flowing, in turn, increasing B.C.’s ability to compete, he said.

“The key purpose is to improve links between border crossings, ports, railways and other areas where goods need to be shipped. That was the rationale behind federal investment in the project,” Stuempel explained.

The federal and B.C. provincial governments have joined forces, spending five years and millions of dollars on this project, which began in 2005 and should be completed by 2008.

BIP is not related to the Gateway, a billion-dollar initiative to improve B.C. roads and decrease congestion.

But the two programs are similar because both aim to improve efficient highway movement, he said.

Where the Gateway program concentrates on moving people and goods, the BIP is about moving goods as quickly and efficiently as possible to the Lower Mainland’s four border crossings.

Ports can be efficient on their own, but if goods can’t make it to those ports, their competitive edge is lost, Stuempel elaborated.

“And goods movement is very competitive, with ports both north and south of the border. If you can’t compete, you encourage movement to go south,” he said.

The expansion of the three highways will have a positive impact in the movement of goods and services.

“There will be a noticeable improvement in efficiency on Highways 10 and 15, not only because of increased capacity, but there are also fewer direct accesses, and less left turns onto the highway, as well as barriers.

“As of now, getting on the highway is a maneuver not for the timid,” Stuempel laughed.

Safety improvements are also the main focus for the Queensborough interchange on Highway 91.

“We won’t be expanding capacity, but we’ll install barriers and make both sides of the Queensborough Bridge in New Westminster accessible to cyclists and pedestrians.

The interchange itself is substandard, with loops so tight that trucks are forced to cross the centre line,” he said.

The new interchange is designed to avoid head-on conflicts, and the radius of the loops would be increased.

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