Improvements to Alex Fraser Bridge running behind schedule
Posted August 14, 2019 11:07 am.
Last Updated August 14, 2019 2:01 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Improvements to the Alex Fraser Bridge are running behind schedule. A seventh lane is set to be added before the end of the month, but the new counterflow system won’t be working just yet.
Ashok Bhatti with the Ministry of Transporation says more time is needed.
“We’re hoping for late this year, we haven’t put an exact time frame around it,” he says. “This project isn’t on time, it is slightly delayed.”
And workers still need to test the two zipper trucks that will move the new barriers back-and-forth.
“There’s a lot of safety, as you can appreciate, associated with this system, especially when you’re going to be running counterflow systems,” Bhatti says. “It’s not just the zipper truck – we’re also waiting for the rest of the counterflow systems to be put in place so that we know that traffic can move safely back and forth across the bridge and know which lane configuration is in at any time.”
As a result, once the seventh lane is added, it will stay on the southbound side until everything is ready. That means drivers will have four lanes when crossing in the afternoon rush, but there will be no relief for those who get stuck in traffic in the morning.
“Hopefully within the next few months we’ll be in a place where we’re ready to go and then we can start operating counterflow for the morning peak periods on that bridge as well,” Bhatti says.
