News report says South Fraser Perimeter Road project has been "downgraded"

News 1130 has reported that the B.C. government has imposed "major downgrades" to the South Fraser Perimeter Road project.

The Gateway Program website describes the 40-kilometre route as "a new four-lane, 80km/hr route along the south side of the Fraser River from Deltaport Way in southwest Delta to 176th Street (Hwy 15) in Surrey, with connections to Highways 1, 15, 17, 91, 99, and TransLink’s Golden Ears Bridge".

However, the News 1130 report cited an unnamed source in Delta's engineering department saying that the "freeway route was scrapped in favor of a stop-and-go highway controlled by traffic signals".

Meanwhile, there will be a march for climate justice tomorrow (October 10) at 2 p.m. It will begin at the Scott Road SkyTrain station in Surrey and proceed to 129th Street and 115b Avenue in North Surrey, where the South Fraser Perimiter Road route is marked by piles of sand.

It's part of the 10/10/10 Dig in for Climate Justice, which is a joint project of three Lower Mainland chapters of the Council of Canadians and GatewaySucks.org.

"We will dig up this sand and use it to start raising the flood control dykes around a Surrey neighbourhood and protect it from flooding caused by global warming," a recent bulletin from GatewaySucks.org states. "If the police intervene, some of us are willing to be arrested as an act of civil disobedience. We need lots of people to attend and show their support."

Comments

6 Comments

ken 3

Oct 10, 2010 at 6:22pm

I cant wait for this road to be built, should of been done at least a decade ago.

Shepsil

Oct 10, 2010 at 9:42pm

The SFPR is a classic BC Liberal developer friendly success story.

They told us we needed a truck hwy to supply containers to Delta Port. What they didn't tell us was that they and their friends had bought up all the land beside this road to be built.
Whether the SFPR is built to one standard or another is irrelevant to them. Their now adjacent to the SFPR hwy land has gone up in value massively and the deal has been a success for these land owners.

But, it is not too late to stop this project, with your support we can stop this project cold. Its been done before and it will be done again. The downgrading of this Hwy is just the first nail in its coffin.

RealityCheck

Oct 12, 2010 at 8:08am

The protesters should respect democracy. It was approved by the voters in the last provincial election and is well under construction.

RodSmelser

Oct 12, 2010 at 8:56am

There's no inconsistency as between the Gateway office description onf an 80 kmh route and one with stop signals. If it were a freeway, one with grade separatated interchanges instead of intersections, the speed limit would normally be 100 or 110 kmh. 80 kmh is the speed limit on most BC highways that have some control of access but some stop signals as well.

While this highway has been sensibly criticized for consumption of farmland and impacts on river shores and Burns Bog, it's important to note that it was identified as an approved project in the much-ballyhooed LRSP, and was explicitly endorsed by Vancouver Councillor David Cadman at the same time he was persuading Vancouver City Council to pass a toy resolution "unanimously" opposing the PMH1 project.

That this route was included in the LRSP doesn't mean it's a good choice. It just means that the LRSP was, and is, an extremely poor guide to public policy. People who still rely on it are being extremely foolish, or worse.

Rod Smelser

T. Ian McLeod

Oct 12, 2010 at 10:26am

The concept for the SFPR, essentially as described at the top of Charlie Smith's article, was developed by the former New Democratic Party government. It was the subject of an open house at the Trinity Lutheran Church on River Road in late 1999, which I attended. In a 1997 transportation planning report that was released to news media, the NDP government also proposed a North Fraser Perimeter Road, including a major upgrading of Front Street in New Westminster, and a Tree Island Bridge, which would be a new crossing of the Fraser River downstream from the Queensborough Bridge.

RodSmelser

Oct 13, 2010 at 8:12am

I guess people don't like seeing Cadman's endorsation of the SFPR mentioned, nor any criticism of the LRSP, a document prepared under the leadership of Gordon Campbell and Gordon Hogg.
Rod Smelser