Dear Editor:
Over the last week the section of Highway 1 on the North Shore has been hit with seemingly daily traffic interruptions on or approaching the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge (Second Narrows crossing).
While this is nothing new to daily users of the bridge, the recent tie-ups I’ve been stuck in – as well as improved visibility of the affected areas via apps like Waze or Google Traffic – shed a new light on the impact these problems cause and also how long it takes to clear these accidents up.
In the case of non-life-threatening injury or environmental damage (i.e. a spill), why does it take so long to get traffic moving again?
For instance, the huge mess on Dec. 21 allegedly caused by a couple of dump trucks eastbound west of the bridge was first reported in one of the apps at 3 p.m., and I heard that it may have actually occurred sometime before 1 p.m. So why is it that by 5:30 p.m., the highway was still blocked to one lane? Eastbound traffic was backed up to the Cypress exit according to Google Traffic.
On a recent Saturday night, there was a westbound blockade on the bridge deck caused by a fire truck in the middle lane blocking a single, stalled, undamaged car. It took an hour to get from First Avenue (in Vancouver) to the middle of the bridge for that one.
While the use of the at-the-ready pusher trucks operated by a service provider are definitely a step in the right direction, it strikes me that many of these giant jams could be alleviated or avoided entirely through more efficient clearing of the highway with the right equipment and on call personnel.
Perhaps an equipment upgrade to assist moving heavy trucks to the side faster or a crane truck to lift disabled vehicles onto flat deck trucks quickly would help.
It’s all well and good if it’s an isolated case – accidents are accidents – but with all the proposed residential density increases the district is planning, it’s not going to get any better. The proposed highway upgrades won’t be increasing bridge deck capacity.
Who is being held accountable for the time it takes to clean up non-life-threatening crashes?
Shouldn’t we strive to do this more efficiently?
Rob Stevenson
North Vancouver
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