Tenth to the Fraser

The Surrey Leader reports that New Westminster's Brad Ross has provoked a testy bit of back-and-forth between provincial transportation minister Kevin Falcon and Delta city council. Ross commutes to Delta, facing a regular bottleneck at Highway 91 and 72 Ave.

New Westminster resident Brad Ross, who makes regular trips across the [Alex Fraser] bridge, wrote Falcon to ask if there were plans to build an overpass.

According to the minister’s written reply, the traffic lights are still there because Delta “strongly favoured an alternate and more costly configuration, and we were unable to reach agreement.”

Ross forwarded the response to Delta council last week.

There was supposed to be money for improvements to the intersection in 2003, courtesy of a federal-provincial Border Infrastructure Program.

The Falcon letter also said a full intersection was “not viable as part of the project, due to the close proximity of Burns Bog.”

Coun. Scott Hamilton scoffed at the comment.

“The minister is talking through his hat,” Hamilton said, noting the land is privately owned and not part of the bog conservancy.

“They (the program) just ran out of money.”

So there you go, if you too share Ross' commute and wondered what the issue was at Hwy 91 and 72nd ... it appears to be a political bottleneck as well as a daily traffic headache.

Labels: NW in the news, politics, traffic