Pitt Meadows city council is trying to address what many refer to as one of the most dangerous stretches of road in the city.
At the April 9 meeting, city council was given three options for improving the local truck route that brings many large commercial vehicles into the community.
Director of engineering and operations, Samantha Maki, presented the results of the localized truck route feasibility study, which analyzed parts of Kennedy Road, Wooldridge Road, Ford Road, Ford Detour Road, and McTavish Road.
Maki explained that the study revealed that an average of 40 commercial trucks per day were travelling in each direction on the truck route.
“That number of trucks is relatively lower than we were expecting and relatively low considering the amount of truck traffic we have and the movement of goods,” said Maki.
Despite the somewhat modest number of commercial vehicles using the truck route each day, many of the city’s councillors and some residents who got up to speak at the April 9 meeting maintained that using the route was very dangerous for drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians alike, largely due to the 11 sharp turns that exist along the route.
According to the study, a total of 4.6 collisions occurred on the truck route each year between 2012 and 2021, with about six per cent of those crashes resulting in personal injuries or fatalities.
“It is difficult to assess the number of collisions based on the low volumes of this area,” said Maki. “We would expect a high number of collisions where there’s high volumes [of traffic]. If we look at Harris Road for example, which is a main artery, you might have 10 or more collisions per year.”
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To address the safety concerns put forth, council was recommended three possible options.
Option one involved implementing improvements for the existing truck route, with efforts largely focused on improving sightlines.
These improvements include:
• Prohibiting parking at one location along Kennedy Road
• Repainting faded stop cars and crosswalk markings
• Clearing foliage around signs and relocating a few signs
• Removing vegetation at Ford Detour Road and 176th Street
• Replacing missing and damaged bollards at sharp bends
• Adding reflectors at Ford Road and Ford Detour Road
• Replacing missing reflectors
• Relocating mailboxes on Kennedy Road
• Implementing stop controls at the corner of Wooldridge Road and Ford Road [optional]
“Implementing all of these options would improve sightlines and visibility, but also reduce the possibility of collisions and improve overall safety,” said Maki.
The second option was to build a Ford Road connection that connected the east and west segments of Ford Road and allowed trucks to bypass Ford Detour Road. While there already exists a gravel road in the proposed spot, it would need to be paved to accommodate the commercial traffic.
“It would eliminate the six turns along the Ford Road detour,” explained Maki.
The third and final option involved constructing a new roadway connecting Kennedy Road to the north end of McTavish Road.
Maki explained that this option would be more costly due to the fact that the city doesn’t own a small section of land needed to complete the connector. She also said that this project, which was referred to as the McTavish connection, is included in the city’s DCC program for future implementation.
“There are a number of complexities to work through there, including the proximity to the Katzie Slough and the multi-millions of dollars needed to upgrade that existing road,” said Maki.
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The three options were then weighted based on a number of criteria and ranked in order of recommendation, with option one being the highest-recommended choice.
“The first recommended option was upgrading the existing truck route, and that was mainly because of cost. It had the lowest cost option and was the most feasible, but also still improved safety,” said Maki.
“I do think small improvements and awareness go a long way.”
According to Maki, the majority of the upgrades listed in the first option would be included by the end of the year and were already accounted for in this year’s budget.
The only exceptions to this would be the relocation of the mailboxes and the optional introduction of a stop control and intersection widening, which she said would likely be completed in 2025 if it went forward.
While council supported pursuing the first option, some of the councillors expressed concerns over the future of this truck route.
“I think we’re kind of just putting a Band-Aid on things,” said Councillor Bob Meachen. “I think this is a good start but we need to go further.”
Couns. Meachen and Alison Evans also pointed out frustration over the fact that the city would be footing the bill for these upgrades despite the study revealing that 80 to 90 per cent of the trucks entering the route from Lougheed Highway travelled to the Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway intermodal facility just north of the Katzie Slough.
“It feels awfully familiar that the goods moving through the Lower Mainland and potentially across the province and the whole country is left here with Pitt Meadows to deal with the infrastructure,” said Evans.
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The topic of the proposed CPKC logistics yard expansion in that area of Pitt Meadows was also a cause for concern among some of the councillors, especially when it was revealed that none of the three options for the truck route took into account the changes in traffic if the logistics yard expansion went ahead.
“Beyond traffic, there is a number of components that would need to be taken into consideration and, in staff’s perspective, paid for by that expansion,” said Maki.
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An amendment was made to the proposal at the request of Coun. Mike Hayes, which would bring the issue of this truck route back to council at the next presentation of the Transportation Master Plan, which Maki explained would be in 2028.