‘It’s not good enough’: Local mayor wants highway improvements now, not later

CHILLIWACK (NEWS 1130) – Some much needed infrastructure improvements in the Fraser Valley are coming too slowly, according to the mayor of Chilliwack.

Sharon Gaetz says Highway 1 keeps getting busier and busier with people leaving Metro-Vancouver in search of more affordable living.

“We are seeing a huge growth rate,” she says. “Between 2001 and 2016, Chilliwack increased by 34 per cent, so that’s a huge amount.”

And that means more people taking the highway, which she believes is making life difficult for local residents.

“It’s really hard to maintain a family lifestyle when you’re spending inordinate amounts of time on the freeway because of congestion, bumper-to-bumper traffic.”

She says the previous government promised to widen the highway by 2030, but that’s simply not fast enough.

“We’ve already grown far beyond that, we have reached capacity,” she explains. “It’s just way too far off and it’s time to start talking about it now.”

Gaetz says this is probably the number one concern her citizens have right now –besides snow removal.

“It is something that’s been talked about for a long time. Whenever I do a presentation and present that the provincial government had told us that it would 2030 before we widen the highway, people express great disbelief that the province wouldn’t see that this is a huge need.”

And it’s not just people commuting that find a problem with the current infrastructure. According to Gaetz, trucks on the highway have also added to congestion.

“There are a lot of goods and services being transported, and Chilliwack gets a little bottle neck because of course people, truckers use Chilliwack –particularly Lickmann Road– for a pitt stopbefore they carry on into the Fraser Canyon and up the Coquihalla to deal with goods and services and it is really becoming difficult for people to get around with the large volumes of trucks on our highways.”

Gaetz plans to appeal to the new NDP government and Transportation Minister Claire Trevena to see the improvements more quickly.

“We have a new government in place, and I’m sure that they’ll want to be interested in learning more about the struggles that we’re having in the Fraser Valley in moving people and goods and services,” she says.

We have reached out to the minister for comment.

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