Yay or nay: Is Hwy91 moving better through Delta without the traffic light at 72nd?
Posted August 19, 2018 8:53 am.
Last Updated September 1, 2018 10:55 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
DELTA (NEWS 1130) – You’ve had a full week to get familiar with the new overpass on Highway 91 in Delta–there’s no longer a traffic light forcing the northbound lanes to come to a complete stop before the Alex Fraser Bridge.
It’s a busy route during the morning rush hour. Darren Grieve with the NEWS 1130 Air Patrol says he’s noticed a difference northbound since the overpass opened last weekend.
“It really has been a big improvement overnight literally after they opened up that intersection at 72nd and 91,” he says, adding normally people are backed to 64th Ave–or even further on a bad day.
“So far, really all we see is smooth sailing until just before that Nordel overpass — we see a small pocket of volume at that overpass as you make your way under that overpass but by the time you make it onto the bridge deck it’s wide open again. So, a big difference.”
Grieve says he personally hasn’t heard any complaints about the new traffic flow and he thinks most people who use the route daily are happy with the removal of the traffic light.
NEWS 1130 listener Daraius takes Highway 91 to work on weekdays, and says while it’s nice he doesn’t have to stop at the light northbound, he’s noticed there’s now a slowdown beyond 72nd.
“As we pass that area and get closer to the bridge it’s just like there’s a lot more traffic there,” he says, adding even when you came to a complete stop at the light, you could still go a healthy speed after the light, whereas now it’s a slower, consistent crawl all along the 91.
“Maybe it will get better, I don’t know…it could be a huge improvement [for traffic] next month…Maybe it will improve when there’s a lot more traffic, it’ll just be free-flowing the whole way.”
The real test for how traffic flows will be next month, when kids are back in school, and parents are back to their regular routine.
