Lougheed Highway’s role in bringing rapid transit to Maple Ridge is as murky as the road itself on a winter night.
The city considers the Lougheed as its rapid-transit corridor, but so far, it’s just a line on a map in a decade-old document.
City engineer Dave Pollock cites a 2007 study that identifies the road as the main corridor for SkyTrain or light rail, if and when one of those systems reaches this far.
But that study is a general overview only and there still is no established right of way down Lougheed – dotted by empty and cleared lots and development and for-sale signs entering the downtown heading east – for any type of rapid transit system.
“It’s fair to say, there’s no protected corridor at this time,” Pollock said.
The type of transportation used will play a large role in deciding how much room is required, and if space for that exists on the highway.
“It really depends on the nature of the technology you’re going to use,” Pollock said.
Still, at 31 metres wide, there is some room on Lougheed.
“It’s a wider right of way, but even with that, there are constraints.”
Pollock said TransLink, the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure would have to evaluate the entire Lougheed corridor – access points, intersections, driveways and business impacts, from downtown Maple Ridge through to Pitt Meadows.
At the same time, the ministry has to ensure the highway can still move vehicles and goods between B.C. cities.
An elevated SkyTrain system would have less impact on the road, he added.
Coun. Gordy Robson has been pushing to create such a corridor for more than a decade, As mayor in 2006, he proposed that the B.C. Hydro powerline corridor on the south side of Lougheed Highway be dedicated for a light rail system from Port Coquitlam to Pitt Meadows, as far as 200th Street.
But that could require B.C. Hydro burying the lines, which would cost millions per kilometre.
“It will be tight, but it’s doable,” Robson said.
In the Maple Ridge section, from 200th Street to downtown, Robson said there should also be enough room for rapid transit on the south side of Lougheed.
He’d also like to see any new buildings along the south side of Lougheed to be set back farther south, just in case a rapid transit line needs more frontage.
“If we know where it’s going, we should be protecting the corridor. That’s the kind of planning we should be doing.”
He hopes TransLink’s current task of trying to find room for B-Line stops on the highway will drive home the need for protecting the Lougheed corridor.
Pollock, though, said that as new developments occur on Lougheed, the future needs of the road are required.
Coun. Bob Masse said city engineers should determine the future potential of the highway.
“It might have that capacity. That’s a good question for engineers to figure out.
“I think that’s hugely important that everything we’re doing now is anticipating we’re going to have another 50,000 people here.”
Maple Ridge council wants the highway, between 222nd and 200th streets, improved, starting with a better design for the planned intersection improvements at 222nd Street and the Haney Bypass.
Council had started that discussion just a few days before 32-year-old Tassis Vix was killed while when hit by a car along the highway close to the downtown area on April 12.
Masse pointed out that five years ago, the city asked the ministry if it planned any esthetic improvements to Lougheed. The city was told there are none.
For Coun. Tyler Shymkiw, the key to an improved Lougheed will be the 222nd Street intersection and the B-Line bus.
”But the engineering around an LRT, I think we’re a ways from that. You don’t know … is it going to be in the air? Is it going to be on the ground? I’m not too worried about that aspect because I think there are a number of options there.
“We need to hopefully put the work in now, instead of building on our transportation corridors, to figure that out.”
Coun. Craig Speirs agrees that Lougheed is Maple Ridge’s rapid transit corridor “by default.” But he sees the B-Line system, starting in September 2019, running from the Haney Place exchange into Coquitlam Central, as sufficing for another 20 years until Maple Ridge’s population increases.
“I don’t think it [rapid transit] will happen anytime soon.”
