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.
Here is a map of the proposed Highway Expansion.
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
-twinning of the Port Mann Bridge
-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
- massive reconstruction and enlargement of the Delta shipping port
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:
- The Livable Region Coalition
- Society Promoting Environmental Conservation
- Western Canada Wilderness Committee
- Gateway 40 Coalition
- The Gateway Project (the official Party line)
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