The Gateway Project is the most environmentally threatening highway mega-project in British Columbia's history. It WILL affect our region's air quality and hasten global climate change. And it WON'T reduce traffic congestion.
Check out the map of the proposed Highway Expansion and find out more here.
The Project is a massive old-school highway-expansion plan being launched by the BC Government, spearheaded by Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon.
Key points of the scheme are
- massive reconstruction and enlargement of the Delta shipping port
-construction of 10-lane Port Mann "Superbridge"
-Expansion of Highway One to eight lanes between Langley and East Vancouver
-construction of North and South Perimeter Roads through Delta, Langley, Richmond and Surrey
The Gateway Project is expected to cost approx. $10 billion.
The proposed timeline for Gateway is: 2006: completion of "public consultations"; 2007: environmental assessments; 2008: tendering of contracts, and 2009-2013: construction. Realistically, construction will likely extend until at least 2015 (yes, that is 5-7 years of traffic-jamming roadwork!).
There has been virtually no meaningful public consultation on this project, nor have any environmental assessments been completed. The Province has just announced plans to "streamline" the environmental assessment process in order to break ground on target.
Many communities will suffer from the effects of the additional cars that will certainly come if they build it, but the first point of impact will be East Vancouver, where the "expanded" highway will abruptly end, forcing all those extra cars out of the three existing exits and through East Van toward downtown.
Interestingly however, to date, Gateway has found its most vocal opposition south of the Fraser, where residents are outraged by the threatened expropriation of our most fertile farmland and the tragic impact of highway-building and port expansion on the rare ecosystems of Burns Bog and the Fraser estuary, including the orca pods of the Georgia Straight.
The project is being touted as a "solution to traffic congestion," although every traffic planner knows there is NO evidence to support this approach. All evidence proves that increasing road capacity does not decrease congestion – in fact, it makes it worse.
In fact, Gateway was never intended to ease commuter traffic – it was conceived to move goods, not people. It's true intent is to facilitate trade with Asia. The appeal to local drivers is a simple ploy to garner votes.
The Gateway Project a bad deal all around. But it's NOT a "done deal." Vancouver has put the brakes on highways projects before, and we can stop this one.
To learn more about Gateway visit:
Comments
3 comments postedwhen they add up costs for these projects they don't add on the extra social costs which are in the billions: police surveillance, hospitals, rehab, emergency, air pollution, court costs, coroners, street cleaning, road gear and equipment maintenance, on going,etc. Isn't it cheaper to get people out of their cars and unto public transit?
Leave existing roads for service vehicles.
A million a mile is the average cost for regular road building.
We as taxpayers, whether we drive or not have to pay and at the same time SUFFER from all these automobiles being used.
I do not know where and how you live in Lower Mainland but it seems you have not experienced the bad roads and the issue of transportation in this place. you only need to go to some cities who have had their roads planned out much better than here to see the simplicity of it all. Better roads are necessity to this place and they will only increase safety, traffic, and so on. I have to go from Maple Ridge to BCIT everyday. By transit it takes about 2 hours and by car an hour! now times that by 2 for coming back. the traffic is ridiculous don't even start on PortMann bridge.... how about the road quality and bumps. all these and the accidents that jam the traffic for hours. You are not going to stop people from buying cars or using transit. the roads are getting fuller everyday and clogging them wont solve your problem. How about putting time and effort on the sky train system. Vancouver is the only City that does not have even one good Freeway. This is necessarily with for the survival of this place although i think the problem is caused by the bad suburbanizing that stretches the city to all sorts of places.
I do not know where and how you live in Lower Mainland but it seems you have not experienced the bad roads and the issue of transportation in this place. you only need to go to some cities who have had their roads planned out much better than here to see the simplicity of it all. Better roads are necessity to this place and they will only increase safety, traffic, and so on. I have to go from Maple Ridge to BCIT everyday. By transit it takes about 2 hours and by car an hour! now times that by 2 for coming back. the traffic is ridiculous don't even start on PortMann bridge.... how about the road quality and bumps. all these and the accidents that jam the traffic for hours. You are not going to stop people from buying cars or using transit. the roads are getting fuller everyday and clogging them wont solve your problem. How about putting time and effort on the sky train system. Vancouver is the only City that does not have even one good Freeway. This is necessarily with for the survival of this place although i think the problem is caused by the bad suburbanizing that stretches the city to all sorts of places.