The residents of New Westminster can breathe a sigh of relief. We have now learned that TransLink will not be recommending a design to go forward for the United Boulevard Extension. At a meeting in Sapperton last night, TransLink conceded that it is not possible to arrive at a design that would work for the stakeholders and for the community.
TransLink also reminded the community that the North Fraser Perimeter Road was not (and continues not to be) a priority for TransLink. This justified the community’s concern that UBE was simply a project to move traffic into the City with no plans or budget to address the other well-known bottlenecks in New Westminster. UBE would have made traffic
congestion in New Westminster much worse.
In the four workshops hosted by TransLink, we learned that road building in urban areas is extremely expensive, both in terms of money and in the impact on communities. Despite the strong desire by both TransLink and the community to fix the traffic problems in the vicinity of the Brunette-Braid intersection, and to improve access for the businesses in
the Brunette Industrial area, it was clear that the solutions were not to open the door wider to more traffic from the Lougheed and Highway 1 corridors. During the process TransLink could not clearly articulate how this massively expensive project ($160 million for ~700 metres of road)
would benefit New Westminster, or how the project fit in its own Transport 2040 vision plan. In this context the plan was also bad for the region.
The City of New Westminster now has the opportunity to complete its Master Transportation Plan (scheduled to begin this year) without a lopsided road project threatening any hope of achieving traffic normalcy in the City. The City can now look for opportunities to work with TransLink and other partners to invest in infrastructure and solutions that complement TransLink’s 2040 goals and contribute the City’s livability.
TransLink, their staff and consultants deserve considerable credit for running a thorough consultation process that allowed all parties to articulate their concerns. The result of this process made it easy to understand why a project such as the UBE could not work for all stakeholders. The residents of New Westminster were able to speak with a common and clear voice in a true community building exercise. It was telling that although the Mayor of Coquitlam had considered this a high priority project, almost no one from Coquitlam bothered to show up for any of the UBE open houses or workshops. Clearly this project was not a high priority for the residents of that City.
The New Westminster Environmental Partners look forward to working with the City and TransLink towards improving the safety and congestion along the Brunette corridor by reducing traffic and creating solutions that encourage people and goods to use the multitude of transportation options that already exist.
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