Maple Ridge council is following a step-by-step approach to extending Abernethy Way eastward, deciding to focus on the 232nd-to-240th street stretch first.
“That was an engineering overview and I think that there’s more detail required as to what the best route might be,” Mayor Mike Morden said Wednesday of the Abernethy Way Extension Study.
Morden added that the 232nd to 240th Street extension has to be four lanes.
“Let’s not do this short,” he said.
The consensus was that council would rather not use Dewdney Trunk Road as the main approach to 256th Street because it’s already a corridor, Morden added.
“From 232nd to 240th, we have said go ahead – and we will not be pushing Abernethy through past 240th, at this stage,” Coun. Gordy Robson said Wednesday.
He added that extending Abernethy Way to 240th Street could happen in the next year or two.
Extending farther east towards 256th Street could take another decade, he said.
But the priority, Robson pointed out, is to get Golden Ears Way four-laned from 200th Street to 210th Street.
Traffic is jammed up on that two-lane stretch.
Council has also asked that TransLink address the issue in the new Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Area Transport Plan.
The route to 256th Street, which would have run south from 124th Avenue, down a wider 24oth Street, to connect to a wider Dewdney Trunk Road, was recommended in a staff report based on a study and public consultation.
Council had asked for the Abernethy Way Extension Study to find the easiest way to connect Abernethy Way to 256th Street, and thus find another route to link to the city’s industrial area.
The study also sought to find a way to connect 240th Street to the planned new bridge over the Alouette River.
While three final options were considered, the proposed route from 232nd to 240th street was the same for all three options and entailed the extension of 124th Avenue eastward, with an S bend involved, as far as 240th Street.
According to a staff report, 39 per cent of those who responded to a survey preferred the Dewdney Trunk Road option to 256th Street, while 28 per cent preferred just extending 124th Avenue more or less eastward to 256th Street.
Nine per cent favoured having new route use 132nd Avenue to connect to 256th Street.
The study recommended the 240th-Dewdney Trunk Road route as the preferred option for further study.
The study notes that there are no major creek crossings (compared to two for the other routes) and has the smallest area needed for environmental compensation.
It also rang in as the cheapest option at $66 million, $3 million cheaper than the middle route which would have just extended 124th Avenue eastward.
pmelnychuk@mapleridgenews.com
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