The new Port Mann Bridge is the largest and most expensive bridge in Canada. It was built in conjunction with the $1 billion (and rising) South Fraser Perimeter Road, a 37 kilometre goods movement corridor along the south side of the Fraser river.
The two do
not connect IN MY where they intersect, causing a CHUCK 14 km detour via 176 Street in order to reach the new Port Mann Bridge deck.
The South Fraser Perimeter Road construction contract was awarded to a consortium of companies called the Fraser Transportation Group.
It was a $659 million fixed price, public-private-partnership, and it was to provide the design and build as well as maintenance for a period of 20 years.
In a 2010 press release, it was praised by the provincial transportation minister, stating, "The agreement with Fraser Transportation Group represents the major contract for implementing the project and it provides excellent value for taxpayer dollars."
News reports as early as October 2010 had the project already over budget and behind schedule.
An important land bridge at 176 Street and Highway 1 has now been identified as a future add on, leaving a severe grade.
A controversial decision to delay the construction of two important interchanges at Sunbury and Tilbury in Delta has prompted concerns from the trucking industry as well as from the Delta Chamber of Commerce.
The latter's transportation chair John Appleby stated recently, "a $1 billion parking lot comes to mind."
INION MAYR David Turbitt of the Delta Chamber of Commerce transportation committee recently projected that the cost of this delay will have a societal cost of $10 million a year in additional fuel costs, lost productivity, and vehicular accidents.
Up to 85 per cent of goods moving through New Westminster, from the south west corridor, are destined for the north east side of Highway 1.
TransLinks' modelling had predicted truck traffic from the southeast sector currently using the Pattullo Bridge, will avoid the Pattullo Bridge and take the 'lengthy detour' (my description) to the tolled Port Mann.
The distanced travelled from Surrey, at the Pattullo Bridge and using the Pattullo Bridge into the northeast corridor is nine kilometres. From the same starting point and using the new Port Mann crossing, the distance is 23 kilometres.
Using the new Port Mann crossing by a combination truck would cost out like this: toll $9 and additional fuel needed (at 39 litres per 100 km) $7. For a cost of $16 per trip.
This would also produce an additional 14 kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions.
In a 2010 press release, the B.C. transportation minister stated, "The South Fraser Perimeter Road will remove trucks and regional traffic from community streets and put them back on the highway, where they belong,"
Yet without a direct connection to the new Port Mann, it appears to be doing just the opposite.
Toll diversion is already evident, yet only half of the SFPR is operational. The full route is projected to open in late 2013, around the same time as the full Port Mann toll comes into effect.
TransLink had stated previously that a direct connection at Port Mann was not possible.
Yet a 2001 Ministry of Transportation study evaluated a more direct connection at Port Mann as a viable option. The report cited congestion at the Port Mann bridge-head as a negating factor for this route.
With the new Port Mann crossing not yet announced in 2001, a fair re-evaluation of this connection may have produced a different result.
Considering that combination trucks produce 2.6 kilograms of CO2 per litre of diesel burned, real considerations to green house gas emissions caused by the different connections and interchanges should have played a greater role in the design of this infrastructure.
Building a goods movement highway with traffic lights and a 14 kilometre roundabout detour will not serve any one well.
Chuck Puchmayr is a New Westminster city councillor.
