Frankly Speaking

When the BC Liberal government under then-premier Gordon Campbell decided to replace the original Port Mann Bridge (pictured) and upgrade Highway 1 between Vancouver and Langley, it failed to see how unfair it was to only charge bridge users a toll to pay for the entire project. That inequity has been rectified by their successors, the new NDP government under Premier John Horgan. Stephen Rees photo On Friday, Premier John Horgan announced that tolls would be removed from the Port Mann Bridge and the Golden Ears Bridge, effective Sept. 1. This fulfills a key election promise made by the NDP – one that likely made the difference between winning and losing the provincial election. They picked up four seats in North Surrey and Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows (and a fifth one in North Delta). There is no doubt that the pledge to remove the tolls was a key factor in some voters switching their loyalty from the BC Liberals to the NDP in all those ridings. (The importance of this pr...

Two significant infrastructure improvements opened in the past two weeks, and unlike the usual changes to transportation corridors, these ones directly benefit pedestrians and cyclists. Cyclists and pedestrians can now use a multi-use pathway over the new Port Mann Bridge. It opened on Wednesday, July 1. This pathway was promised way back when the BC Liberal government, under then-premier Gordon Campbell and then-transportation minister Kevin Falcon, announced plans for the new bridge and Highway 1 improvements, under what was called the Gateway program. That announcement was made in January 2005, prior to the provincial election. The three-metre wide barrier-separated path connects to United Boulevard and Lougheed Highway on the Coquitlam side, and to 112 Avenue in Surrey via a new path along the top of Johnston Hill on the north side of Highway 1. The path has been much-delayed, largely due to the complicated overpass and access structure on the Coquitlam si...