Major changes in the works for three Vancouver bridges

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The push to make Vancouver more bike and foot friendly is going to make it harder to cross False Creek over the next few years.

The city has some major work planned on a trio of spans — the Burrard, Granville, and Cambie bridges.

The City of Vancouver’s director of transportation, Jerry Dobrovolny, promises to co-ordinate the work to minimize the traffic chaos.

“There’s a significant amount of work that’s scheduled and will create disruptions in the transportation system over the next five years.”

For instance, the Burrard Street Bridge will be a major construction site for up to two years, starting next year.

“Safety improvements, simplifying the intersection north and south, a permanent conversion of the cycling facility on the west side, and reconfiguring the east sidewalk,” says Dobrovolny.

The Granville Street Bridge could see its middle converted for pedestrians for cyclists.

“What this does is provide dedicated space for walking and for cycling that brings the people right into the downtown core to a regular urban intersection from the bridge itself. The simplicity of this is it avoids these off-ramps and circles and all of the complexity that’s on the outside of the bridge by coming through the centre of the bridge right into an intersection,” explains Dobrovolny

The Cambie Street Bridge is also in line for some work on both the east and west sides.

In addition to that, Vancouver’s Chief Engineer Peter Judd says seismic upgrades are needed.

“It’s the soils, particularly on the south end, and potential liquefaction of those soils. Technically, what potentially could happen in that case, is you get a sideways movement of the soil towards False Creek, which could put pressure on the pilings that are underneath the foundations.”