SOMETIMES the SeaBus takes a close pass by one of those massive freighters that ply Burrard Inlet, and I'm always awed by the sheer size of them.
The amount of stuff, from coal to containers, that passes through our port is staggering.
This is a good thing. While some nations are still waiting to learn where the bottom is in their economy, it's reassuring to see that people still want to buy Canadian products. In fact, that trade is expanding which, again, is a good thing.
But moving more stuff means upgrading the transportation network that feeds the port terminals. To address this, the province is building new highways to connect an expanding Deltaport to Highway 1, and on the North Shore, our choke point is the Low Level Road.
The layout of the roads and rails down there is already a problem, generating all manner of delays, noise and accidents. Once, I was sitting listening to a dock worker tell city council about how dangerous the intersections are when Jim Belsheim of Neptune Terminals scooted over beside me, brandishing his cellphone. On it there was a picture of a train that had just hit a truck coming in off the Low Level Road.
"This is happening right now!" he exclaimed. It certainly helped make his point.
So something has to be done. The federal government has got some money to splash around on this one, and has teamed up with the province, TransLink, Port Metro Vancouver and the City of North Vancouver to re-engineer that whole corridor.
After a round of jurisdictional hot potato, the job of actually designing and building the new layout landed in the hands of the port.
In retrospect, this was a terrible choice. While I'm sure they're world-class professionals at loading and unloading ships, the folks at the port are totally at sea when it comes to building something outside their fiefdom. Even the most humble contractor could have told them the value of winning the hearts and minds of their neighbours, but I guess big federal agencies don't always understand local "details."
Essentially the road has to be moved north, up the hill - and towards a bunch of people's backyards.
This will reduce the number of at-grade crossings and make space for more rail lines. But exactly how high - or even roughly how high - up the hill the road needs to go is still a complete mystery.
South Slope residents are hoping for no more than a three-metre increase, which port officials dismissed out of hand. Last summer, port CEO Peter Xotta said it would look more like seven or eight metres, which is close to putting a major route in some people's backyards.
But it's hard to even take that seven-or eight metre number seriously because Xotta and his team showed up at the city asking for approval with no drawings of what they wanted to build. You can't legally build a shed without coming up with some diagrams, let alone a $58-million project. But the port people really did seem to think that the city would sign off on (and help pay for) some sort of Mystery Road, sight unseen.
Making matters worse, the port's inability to demonstrate any specific plan had enraged the residents who would end up living beside this road. I've seen a
few bitter development meetings, but you don't hear people use words like "deceitful," "cunning," or "lying" very often. Given the port's evasiveness, I can't say I blame them.
To my surprise, the city eventually ponied up $1 million for some "detailed design work" with the admonition that the port really had to make an effort to win back some trust from its neighbours and come back to ask for final approval. That was last July.
So seven months later, I was excited to get a call from the folks at the port offering to come to the North Shore News with a "technical briefing."
At last, some answers!
But no. In fact, it's really hard to see what they've been doing since July. A pair of their media relations types showed up with largely the same maps and talking points they had last year, but with not a technical drawing in sight. And how high will the new road be? Don't know, but it has been reduced. By a metre, an inch, how much? Don't know yet.
Noise control? Don't know. Lighting? Pollution? Don't know.
How about that slope stabilization study that was most of why the city parted with its million bucks?
Don't have it.
I was starting to feel the pain of the South Slope residents. Why did the port staff bother to show up promising a "technical briefing" knowing they didn't have any technical information to share? If the port needs more time, fine. But pretending to answer legitimate questions with fluff is what got them in this mess in the first place. The most charitable word I could use is arrogant.
What made it even more irritating is that they promised that all will be revealed March 3 at Ridgeway elementary (10 a.m. to 1 p.m.). I really don't think they're going to have a stack of engineering studies and plans started and finished in a couple of weeks.
So I'm left suspecting that the port has the answers to everyone's questions, they just ain't telling.
It's hard not to think they have something to hide. But this Saturday we'll see just what they've come up with. To be continued. . . .
