New Westminster city council is concerned that tolls on the new Port Mann Bridge will lead to more traffic in the Royal City.
The city is worried that more residents will attempt to avoid the $3 per trip toll planned for the new Port Mann Bridge by taking the Pattullo Bridge. New Westminster city council will discuss the issue of tolling the Pattullo Bridge at today's council meeting.
"You can't have one without the other," said Mayor Wayne Wright, who believes both bridges should be tolled. "It doesn't make sense."
When responding to the environmental assessment application as part of the Port Mann/Highway 1 project in 2007, the city stated that traffic modeling showed that the Pattullo Bridge could see an 11 per cent increase in traffic volumes in the morning rush hour once tolls are introduced on the twinned Port Mann Bridge.
Wright said the city is investigating whether tolls can only be placed on new bridges, or whether they could be applied to existing structures such as the current Pattullo Bridge.
"It's the right thing to do," Wright said about tolling the Pattullo Bridge. "We are talking about the livability of this city and the people traveling through it."
While there are currently about 60,000 vehicles passing over the Pattullo Bridge each day, Wright suspects that will jump "quite a bit" once the tolled Port Mann Bridge opens. The Port Mann is expected to open later this year or early in 2013.
Wright said some people have stated that there needs to be a free crossing of the Fraser River. He'd prefer that all crossings be tolled at a lower cost than what's proposed on the Port Mann Bridge.
TransLink recently held four public meetings - two in New Westminster and two in Surrey - to get feedback on four options for the Pattullo Bridge replacement project. Under the options presented at these meetings, a new six-lane bridge, would be either upstream or downstream of the existing bridge.
New Westminster city council recently directed staff to advise TransLink that the city isn't prepared to engage in TransLink's public consultation program at this time, but will be including a public consultation process about all options for a new Pattullo Bride as part its master transportation planning process, which is now underway.
Eugene Wat, the city's manager of infrastructure planning, said the master transportation plan advisory committee met recently to discuss how to incorporate the Pattullo Bridge into the overall plan.
"We are engaging the public about the Pattullo Bridge as part of Phase 3 of the master transportation plan," he said. "We are wrapping up Phase 2."
While Phase 2 has dealt with the status of the transportation network, he said Phase 3 is about setting future directions regarding transportation in New Westminster. An open house will be included in Phase 3.
"Phase 3 is likely going to take around two months," Wat said. "We are going to start in March and continue through April."
Although city staff has not taken part in TransLink's consultation process about the Pattullo Bridge, Wat said the city was aware of the concepts that would be presented at the public meetings. He said the goal is to have some meaningful discussion with the community about the overall transportation needs in New Westminster as part of its master transportation plan.
"It will be much broader," he said. "We won't be confined to TransLink's goalposts."
Wat said the City of New Westminster is "very concerned" about the impact that tolls on the Port Mann Bridge will have on New Westminster.
