A decision to put traffic lights rather than interchanges at two key points on the under-construction South Fraser Perimeter Road is raising concerns in the trucking industry and the Delta and Surrey business communities.
The lights are being planned for the Sunbury and Tilbury connection points, which give on to the Sunbury and Tilbury business parks.
“It never occurred to us that the province would do anything else other than put in overpasses, simply because the issue of traffic was increasingly obvious,” Delta Chamber of Commerce chairman John Appleby said. “The phrase ‘a $1 billion parking lot’ comes to mind.”
The 37-kilometre South Fraser Perimeter Road project falls into the province’s Gateway Program. Construction started in 2008 and is slated to be completed in 2013.
Appleby and Surrey Board of Trade CEO Anita Huberman said the current design falls short of what both their organizations have been advocating for more than a decade: a full highway, unimpeded by traffic lights.
“The reason that this whole South Fraser Perimeter Road was to be built in the first place was to ensure that there was a road where trucks could move their goods across the Lower Mainland and around the Port Mann/Highway 1 traffic-congested routes to offer alternative routes,” Huberman said.
She added that traffic in Surrey is “terrible” and the congestion is pushing trucks onto local roads.
The province, however, doesn’t believe that current traffic justifies the interchanges, which would each cost an additional $10 million to $20 million, according to Geoff Greer, executive director for the South Fraser Perimeter Road project.
A recent letter to the chamber, signed by Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Shirley Bond, said traffic modelling studies show that Sunbury won’t require an interchange until at least 2021 and Tilbury until after 2031. The letter noted that the province has set aside land to build the interchanges in the future. “Traffic modelling conducted by the ministry, as well as a recent independent traffic study undertaken by the Corporation of Delta, both indicate the intersections at the Tilbury and Sunbury business parks will easily accommodate opening day traffic volumes,” Bond’s letter reads.
But Appleby said the road, which will serve traffic to an expanded Deltaport, will become increasingly congested as trade grows through the port. He questioned provincial government estimates that the road could accommodate volume increases over the next 30 years.
“It’s very difficult to say that when the weight of the world’s economy has shifted to the Pacific.”
Greer noted that port growth has been factored into the traffic modelling that the province has carried out.
BC Trucking Association vice-president Louise Yako said the trucking industry is also concerned to see those lights, rather than interchanges, in the plans. She noted that the province’s move to set aside land for future interchanges is no guarantee in itself.
“At some point they’re going to have to find the money,” she said.
But Greer said the province will be monitoring the situation to make sure its projections are correct and the lights are sufficient.
Yako emphasized that, despite the traffic light issue, the trucking industry is generally happy with the project.