New West residents reject TransLink plan for Pattullo Bridge, survey shows

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      Most respondents to a City of New Westminster survey do not favour TransLink’s proposal to demolish the aging Pattullo Bridge and build a larger, six-lane replacement.

      The City of New Westminster launched its own public consultation on the future of the bridge earlier this year amid concerns TransLink was not considering enough options. Many residents have also expressed worry about the potential for increased vehicle traffic through the city with a new bridge.

      As part of the consultation, the city held two open houses in May and received 210 responses to a community questionnaire.

      According to a city staff report, more than 80 percent of the survey respondents think the city should not support TransLink’s proposal while 11 percent disagree. Six percent had no response.

      The survey also shows respondents are divided on which city-proposed option for the bridge to support. The most support, at around 25 percent, came for demolishing and not replacing the bridge.

      Meanwhile, there was between roughly 15 to 19 percent support for each of the other options: rehabilitating the old bridge, building only a four-lane replacement, or demolishing the old bridge and building a new crossing at other proposed locations.

      Most respondents also expressed support for adding tolls on the Pattullo Bridge to discourage drivers seeking to avoid paying to cross the Port Mann Bridge.

      Built in 1937, the Pattullo Bridge is a four-lane crossing over the Fraser River that links Surrey and New Westminster. It is owned and operated by TransLink.

      New Westminster city council is set to consider the survey results at a meeting on June 18.

      Comments

      18 Comments

      jonny .

      Jun 15, 2012 at 5:07pm

      New West likes to think they are a quiet small town, but the fact is they are smack dab in the middle of Metro Vancouver, and they should just shut up and deal with it. They keep doing things to try to keep everyone away, but that is not possible, it just creates more traffic problems. The bridge is needed, and they have to just deal with it. If they dont like it, then dont move to the armpit of Metro Vancouver.

      DavidH

      Jun 15, 2012 at 5:11pm

      Sounds fine to me. The next step is to ban all New West residents from travelling south of the Fraser (for work, shopping or recreation), and to ban them from using roads leading to Vancouver, Burnaby or Coquitlam.

      What the twits in New Westminster don't seem to understand is that they live in an isolated backwater of the metro area. I'm more than happy to confine them to that backwater, where there are virtually no jobs, and the most exciting shopping experience is Army&Navy.

      Have a nice life, folks.

      KiDDAA Magazine

      Jun 15, 2012 at 6:07pm

      The Patullo bridge is a dangerous bridge. How many people have to die from head on collissions before they changes this aging monster. Apparently the Whiteness doesnt care about India or Surrey?

      DHC

      Jun 15, 2012 at 9:45pm

      In what way is New West benefitted by through traffic clogging up their streets. They do not represent income for the city's businesses. A new bridge just means more traffic. Why should Translink keep financing drivers instead of promoting public transit. In this case, put up a toll booth and use the income to fix the poor old bridge and improve access to New West so business will grow and possibly increase jobs.

      Pat Johnstone

      Jun 15, 2012 at 10:30pm

      So which is it, are we smack dab in the middle, or an isolated backwater?

      People should educate themselves a little about this boondoggle waste of taxpayers money, and the reasons many residents of New Westminster and Surrey are standing up against TransLink on this one .

      http://nwimby.blogspot.ca/2012/06/whats-next-for-pattullo.html

      rdj10000@hotmail.com

      Jun 16, 2012 at 12:31am

      Spend $0 not pulling it down, and make it a bicycle / pedestian / moped / electric vehicle , only.

      TrueConservative

      Jun 16, 2012 at 1:25am

      The old bridge was built where it was built 75 years ago because of it's proximity to the the railway and the inter-urban that went to Columbia St. The new highways that have replaced the railway all go around New West anyway, except the old Patullo.

      The new bridge, to be efficient, must cross at Sapperton Bar so we can go North from King George via Bridgeview St. or the new South Fraser Perimeter Road in Surrey, cross the river at the upstream edge of Sapperton Bar and land at Fraser Mills at the Coquitlam/New West border, where we would connect immediately to Hwy 1, Lougheed, and 3 Skytrain lines, with plenty of room for Park & Ride on both sides of the river.

      @pat

      Jun 16, 2012 at 1:42am

      TransLink probably did spend $3 million on the Pattulo Bridge - it was on paper work to keep the do nothng bureaucrats employed. At some point, the accountants and economists at TransLink have to be fired and replaced with engineers to make transit work here.

      cochran

      Jun 16, 2012 at 9:12am

      This Surreyite sympathizes with New Westminster's concern about replacing or re-positioning a new Patullo bridge. I have lived in Surrey for 40 years, and am now retired these last 12 years. I daily commuted the Patullo, as well as the Port Mann bridge for close to 35 years. In those earlier days, commuting was a breeze, if you didn’t mind getting to the bridges by 5:30 am. If the old Patullo were to remain standing, it should be refurbished and down-sized to accommodate single-axle vehicles, cars and pickups only, for daily commuters, who work or have business in the New Westminster area. The trucking industry can wail all it wants, but it is getting an exclusive highway built for it, for the movement of mainly in- and out-bound cargoes. The new “Patullo” bridge should not even be considered to being positioned either up-stream nor down-stream, from the old bridge, but rather, at the confluence of the “Queensborough” and “Alex Fraser” bridges, and connecting highways, springing off from the South Fraser Perimeter Road, across the river to link up with Marine drive in Burnaby, which avoids New Westminster altogether. This would have precluded building a new Port Mann bridge, at great savings to government. It boggles the mind, that engineers would even think of placing a six-lane bridge that crosses the river at E. Columbia, to continue upstream on the north side of the river, when in fact, the major cargo movement will be east and south through Surrey, originating from the Fraser-Surrey docks and Delta Port. The present nightmare commuter corridor through the McBride-10th Ave. corridor needs to be discontinued, as well as the heavily traveled Stewardson Way.

      Taxpayers R Us

      Jun 16, 2012 at 9:47am

      Practically anything Translink should be rejected. We've had a good insight into how much of a tax-grabbing slush fund it is with the storm of media coverage they attracted trying to drive taxes up for their various fails.

      Not sure how it would effect Kiddyyy Magazine though, he lives in his parents' basement.