Surrey LRT plan revised to restore vehicle lanes
Prompted by public pressure, TransLink and the city have restored lanes of traffic along much of 104 Avenue as part of the design for the $1.65-billion Surrey light rail transit project, officials said in a technical briefing Thursday.
Instead of crimping lanes of traffic down to one in either direction, TransLink project director Stephan Mehr said there will be two lanes wherever the existing right-of-way will allow, which will be about 70 per cent of the route.
“We heard a lot about the worry of congestion on 104 Avenue during our last public consultation open houses a year ago,” Mehr said.
In the first version of the design, the city and TransLink didn’t anticipate restoring 104 Avenue to four lanes of vehicle traffic until well after the project’s completion.
The LRT service is expected to more than double 104 Avenue’s capacity to carry people, Mehr said.
Mehr and City of Surrey project director Scott Neumann unveiled the new details, along with other revisions that had been made to the design after that last round of public consultation, just as its next round of public consultation begins. This round will introduce changes and collect additional feedback before starting procurement for the project by the end of 2018, aiming to start construction by the end of 2019.
Surrey-Newton- Guildford light rail is one of two billion-dollar items, along with the $2.83-billion Broadway SkyTrain extension, in TransLink’s 10-year plan to upgrade transit service in the growing Metro Vancouver region.
The LRT project envisions a 10.5-kilometre, L-shaped, at-grade route that would carry trains from Guildford Town Centre on 104 Avenue to Surrey City Centre, where it will turn south down King George Highway to Newton.
The project’s budget has ballooned from $1.03 billion in a 2015 estimate. TransLink will do another budget update before putting the project out for bids, but Mehr said they aren’t expecting any surprises.
“We’re comfortable with the cost estimate we have now,” Mehr said. “We don’t see that changing as we go into procurement.”
Light rail was Surrey ’s preferred option for high-capacity transit, which was approved by the TransLink mayor’s council and is being supported by provincial and federal infrastructure initiatives.
At this stage, Mehr said changes have been made to the design to improve LRT stops, traffic and passenger safety, and details with respect to integrating it with SkyTrain and TransLink’s existing bus network.
Mehr said a key effort right now is engagement with businesses and residences about keeping the roads functioning during the construction period. The intention will be to make sure all businesses are accessible and bus services remain on their existing schedules.
One thing public pressure won’t move is changing the service from LRT to SkyTrain, which many in the community support.
Mehr said he isn’t expecting any new demands from Premier John Horgan’s government.
“The LRT choice was made some time ago,” Mehr said. “In terms of capacity, LRT is the right choice for this corridor. It has capacity well beyond 2045.”