VANCOUVER BC No Toll for Lion

VANCOUVER BC

No Toll for Lion’s Gate

The British Columbia authorities have decided to do a $50m rehab of the Lion’s Gate bridge and improvements to the road approaches, shelving for the immediate future more ambitious toll crossing schemes that would have enhanced capacity. Lion’s Gate is a 1938 suspension bridge that provides a 3-lane road link from the Central Business District to the northern suburbs over the First Narrows channel to Vancouver Harbor. It was built as a toll bridge by a British booze magnate engaged in spin-off real estate development but it was bought by the province in the 1960s and the tolls removed. It is an especially elegant clean design.

Originally opened as a 2-lane bridge, it now has 3 substandard lanes, the middle being reversed to reflect tidal commuter flows. But reverse commuting has grown considerably in recent years as jobs develop on the north shore and traffic engineers argued for 2x2-lanes.

Some 16 months ago the BC Transp Financing Authority sought proposals from investors for partnership arrangements to upgrade the crossing to 2x2-lanes. Several groups worked at it, though Canadian Highways read local sentiment and passed. A variety of bridge enhancement schemes (twinning, double-decking, replacement with a wider bridge) floundered because of fierce opposition to widening the southern approaches to the bridge through the heavily treed Stanley Park, a peninsula immediately northwest of the CBD and the only land route to the Narrows.

A neat scheme was designed for a single-tube 2-lane tunnel for northbound traffic under the harbor that would avoid the park. The existing bridge was to have been reduced to 2 good sized lanes plus shoulder. Cost about $300m and tolls, of course on both.

The antis however were extremely vocal. They said any highway enhancement would worsen traffic in the city, so the provincial government decided “rehab-only.”

John Doyle of the BC Transp Finance Auth says the rehab and approach improvements should alleviate some of the traffic congestion. He said that capacity enhancement could be re-examined in a few years time when BC goes for a Winter Olympics, as proposed by local sports and business groups. The Whistler ski fields are located in mountains north of Vancouver and the province might have to improve road link to Vancouver in order to nail the games.

There is a second harbor bridge 9km east of the Lion’s Gate over the Second Narrows that carries the Trans-Canada-1 motorway but it is awkward to reach from central Vancouver and roundabout. Most of the development in the Vancouver is southward, so just one extra lane would probably suffice over the harbor. (Contact John Doyle BC Transp Fin Auth 604 660 1292)