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District of North Vancouver councillors say they want to see an additional eastbound vehicle lane added to the notoriously congested Cut on Highway 1.
The extra lane could be built on a section of the highway shoulder already available next to existing lanes and free up local traffic trying to get from one side of North Vancouver to the other, said Councillor Jim Hanson, who brought the motion to council’s regular meeting Monday night.
Traffic congestion and lack of transportation options in general remains among the top annoyances for North Shore residents, said Hanson.
“Nowhere is this traffic congestion worse than on Highway 1 eastbound on the Cut,” he said.
Hanson said he drives the route every day between his office on Lonsdale and home in the Seymour area and “invariably there is congestion. Often, stop-and-go traffic,” he said.
“Cars are either sitting idling or moving very slowly spewing out their fumes into the atmosphere,” said Hanson. “I look to my right. And between Lynn Valley Road and Mountain Highway is a section of curb shoulder available land that would easily accommodate the lane.”
While Hanson said he hasn’t yet taken matters into his own hands, “I’m tempted just to pull out and drive down to Mountain Highway.”
Hanson said while “I appreciate that in many cases we can’t build our way out of transportation issues,” the ability to separate local traffic heading for highway exits from drivers waiting to get over the Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing is a worthwhile one.
Hanson called the plan to create an extra lane on the shoulder, “low lying fruit” of traffic improvement, adding he didn’t think the plan would be too expensive.
Other councillors were also in favour of asking staff to investigate the issue and have Mayor Mike Little ask for support from the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, which has jurisdiction over Highway 1.
Coun. Lisa Muri said despite the completion of the Lower Lynn highway interchange project two years ago, traffic is often parked on that section of the Cut during rush hour “on a pretty regular basis.”
Muri added the original plan was for greater separation of bridge traffic and local traffic “but of course money got in the way and costs got in the way,” she said.
District of North Vancouver Mayor Mike Little said the issue of how much time people are wasting stuck in traffic remains a top North Shore irritant. But he added the solution must be examined holistically or it will just shift the problem a bit further down the road to another part of the highway.
“That’s one of the challenges,” he said.
Coun. Betty Forbes said if the province wants the district to create more housing density it should be prepared to cough up money for infrastructure improvements to support that.
She added if BC Ferries created a third terminal for Vancouver Island traffic or moved all Nanaimo traffic out of West Vancouver’s Horseshoe Bay terminal it would help alleviate North Shore traffic woes.
Two years ago, after years of planning and heavy construction work, the $200-million Lower Lynn Improvement Project to improve traffic flow leading to the Ironworkers was completed. Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure contractors broke ground on it in 2016.
Traffic modelling done from the ministry during the planning stages predicted the amount of time it would take to reach mid-span of the bridge from the top of the Cut would be reduced by half.
But in his report to fellow councillors, Hanson noted the project has fallen short of what everyone hoped it would accomplish.
“Despite recent investments in the Lower Lynn interchange improvements, frequent and severe highway delays approaching the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge remain,” he wrote.
Councillors voted unanimously to ask municipal staff to report back on options and for the mayor to write to the ministry advocating for more traffic improvements for the North Shore.
