Dear Editor:
Re: Highway 1 No Longer Making the Cut, July 5 front-page story
I was deeply disappointed to read (District of North Vancouver) Mayor Walton’s comments in your article this week. His Honour asserted that the province has long overlooked the North Shore when it comes to transportation infrastructure spending, saying that the section of highway from Lynn Valley to the Ironworkers Bridge “has not had virtually a nickel put into it.” This is not true.
Since April 2009, we have spent more than $38 million on improvements to the highway, upgrading bridges, resurfacing roads, and improving safety for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists.
We are also moving forward on the multi-phased Lower Lynn Interchanges Plan, which includes converting Mountain Highway Overpass into a full interchange, the construction of new interchanges at Fern Street (Exit #22) and Dollarton, and improvements to Highway 1 throughout the Lynn Valley corridor.
Once completed, these projects will reduce congestion, increase safety, enhance access for transit vehicles and improve east-west traffic for commuters travelling between Lynn Valley and Seymour. The total cost of this plan is $150 million, for which the province is providing $56.7 million.
Congestion is not a new problem for the North Shore.
Since getting elected in 2009, I have been pushing for improvements to our infrastructure, and have been meeting and facilitating meetings with the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, stakeholders and constituents. It takes a lot of time and effort to get these projects going, and they must be done right.
I’m confident that we are moving in the right direction to ease congestion and improve safety and capacity for all who use our roads.
Jane Thornthwaite
MLA, North Vancouver-Seymour
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