Drivers, cyclists and pedestrians eager to test out some of the $192 million in new infrastructure being built for Highway 1 and its interchanges at the Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows bridgehead will have to wait until the spring, at least.
The new Mountain Highway interchange was initially targeted for completion in October. The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure later swapped that target out for December. But now, it appears, work will slow down for most of the winter.
“Due to the addition of municipal work by the contractor and restricted activities during the winter months for the protection of Keith Creek, the Mountain Highway interchange completion has been moved to spring 2019 (likely in June),” a statement from the ministry read. “The extra work entails 200 metres of sewer line replacement, repaving and line marking on Mountain Highway starting at Arborlynn Drive.”
There is some dispute though as to the exact cause of the delays.
District of North Vancouver spokeswoman Stephanie Smiley said the district’s specs on the project have not changed.
“There were several different municipal and regional components included in this project. Because of that, I can’t speculate on what they’re talking about. But I can tell you no new additional municipal work has been added since the project started,” she said.
The ministry did not respond to a request for an interview.
Once the Mountain Highway portion of the project is complete, the province is scheduled to install two new bridges over Lynn Creek alongside the existing orange bridge and construct a new Dollarton/Main Street interchange. The province’s initial estimates expect completion of the multi-phase project by 2021.
The ministry expects, once completed, the number of traffic collisions that snarl the bridgehead will drop by 20 to 35 per cent.
Cost for the $200-million project is being shared by the province ($76.7 million) and federal government ($66.6 million), as well as District of North Vancouver taxpayers, who are contributing $54.7 million.
