Dear Editor:
Re: Council OK’s Highway Interchange Plan, Nov. 13 front-page story.
In November 2014 the North Shore News featured an article complete with a picture showing the proposed $50-million Mountain Highway Interchange.
I noted that the plan did not include a direct access from southbound Mountain Highway to eastbound Highway 1. I expressed my concerns to the District of North Vancouver engineering department with a written submission that included a sketch showing a possible access. I was assured by staff that this would be looked into.
Several months later, I spoke to Coun. Roger Bassam. He assured me that the new plans included a direct access.
A year later, in the Nov. 13 edition of the North Shore News, there was another article about the same interchange and it shows that there is still no direct access for the southbound Mountain Highway traffic to access eastbound Highway 1. Instead, all the southbound traffic from Mountain Highway is forced to access the highway via Keith Road travelling through seven traffic lights between Arborlynn Drive and the highway entrance.
This is the same access that is currently in use and it does not work; it will be even worse when an additional 5,000 residences are built in Lynn Valley. The widening of Keith Road between Brooksbank Avenue and the highway entrance will not solve the problems created by the need to travel through a series of controlled intersections.
I would hate to see such a major project being built to fail. I think that before this $50-million project is approved, it needs to be looked at with a mind to meet current and future needs of our community.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to replace the proposed northbound Mountain Highway access with a southbound access as there are now and there will be far more vehicles travelling south from Lynn Valley than travelling north from Brooksbank Avenue?
Bob Rasmus
North Vancouver
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