Highway 17 (SFPR) Upgrades
 

So, given that the more info has come up regarding the desperately needed 17 / 91 Connector upgrade project, I think it deserves its own thread now instead of piggy backing on the 72nd Interchange page.

So the project will cost just under 250 million.

Is being paid for by the Federal government, The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, The Provincial Government, and the Tsawwassen First Nation.

Construction is to start in 2019, completion anticipated in 2023.

A link to the official page:

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/t...1-17-deltaport

Comments can be made until July 12th.

Images of the current proposed design:

Shoulder widening and what looks to be lengthening of the westbound 17 on ramp from the 80th street intersection is also part of this project.

Here is the original concept for reference:


[IMG]https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1789/...9d4e074a_z.jpgSunburyInterchange by Ian, on Flickr[/IMG]

Another SFPR upgrade to come is associated with the Patullo Bridge replacement.

The Old Yale Road intersection will be removed. It appears that the SFPR will run over top of it.

A direct ramp from the Patullo Bridge south bound to 17 west bound will also be added.

The image is a little fuzzy but it looks as if there may be a minor C/D system between this on ramp and the Tannery Road off ramp. Again just a speculation given the poor image quality.

[IMG]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4764/...9e3e324e_b.jpgPatullo2 by Ian, on Flickr[/IMG]

With these improvements, for the SFPR to be considered an adequate freeway between the Patullo Bridge and 56th Street in Tsawwassen all that remains is for the 80th street intersection to be replaced with an interchange and for the bump in the road near 80th Street to be smoothed / removed.

As for the SFPR east of the Patullo Bridge, a lot of work remains to be done (especially between the railway crossing and 116th Street and the GEW connector intersection)

The truck scale is located right next to Nordel @ 91 Connector. Is that scale going to be at the same place during construction or if there’s going to be a temporary one?

Nice to see free-flow intersections on the 91 connector. It’s horrendous trying to deal with trucks crawling on left and right turns when the arrows are green.

Engagement summary is out.

Only a handful of people took part, but still interesting.

Wish more pressure / comments were made about making 80th / Tilbury intersection an interchange within the scope of this project.

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/dr...port_final.pdf

At least things are moving forward.

2023 opening...

Can someone explain to me why free-flow from 91N to 17-91 Connector is unnecessary? :???:

We know that 80th and 17 will probably never bee an interchange. I hope at least they'll change the lighting configuration. Currently an advance arrow turns on from 17 east to 80th north even when there's no cars waiting to turn left. What a joke.

I wouldn’t say never. In fact given that it is in the list of projects that the port authority wants done it will happen probably sooner than later, which makes this half step in the middle seem all the more bizarre.

As for 91 northbound to the SFPR, while freeflow would be ideal not having it for that movement isn’t a deal breaker for me. This project will still be a massive improvement and it is getting the key traffic flows correct.

Do any of you guys know if the 91 Connector and Nordel Way intersection will be a full interchange?

Updates from the project site.

Project Updates – Posted December 21, 2018

Advance work will be taking place in early January 2019. The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority (port authority) will be removing preload material from the Deltaport Truck Staging Site and transporting it to the Project site. The removal, transportation and placement of this material will be done by the port authority’s contractor TFN Construction/Matcon Civil Joint Venture (the contractor).

The preload material (sand) will be placed on a section of the Project site between River Road and Highway 17. This work is required to prepare the ground in advance of Project construction activities. Please refer to the map below for location details.

Advance Work Project Map

Advance Work Project Map

What to expect

Advance work is anticipated to begin early January, and will be underway for approximately two months
Before the preload can be placed, the contractor will prepare the site, which includes some ground clearing activities
The contractor will use the following route to and from the Project site:
Trucks will travel from the Deltaport Truck Staging Project (located at the intersection of Highway 17, Highway 17A and Deltaport Way) along Highway 17 to 96 Street and then onto River Road.
Work will take place Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
In order to minimize dust and debris on local roads, the contractor will be required to cover the dump trucks while on route to and from the site and conduct street sweeping
Flaggers and notification signs will be in place to safely direct trucks to and from the site
Local businesses may see a temporary increase in truck traffic while this advance work is underway

I still have a big question though: How will the jazz between 104 Avenue (Golden Ears Connector) and Highway 1 be made free flowing? Personally I’m gonna take “impossible” as an (acceptable) answer. Same thing with the intersection with Old Yale Road where there’s a cluster of rail tracks. :???:

I think the Old Yale Rd. Intersection might just become an overpass, with Pautello traffic moving into the new Scott Rd. Interchange instead.

There's more space around the Golden Ears Connector, so a more free-flowing limited interchange might be possible. A full interchange definitely needs to destroy a few buildings. Either Residential, or Industrial.

Oops I meant to say “unacceptable”. Thanks for the ideas anyway. Golden Ears Way, its connector, Pacific Highway, TCH and SFPR will sure be a messy cluster.

Meanwhile, the stubborn refusal to put an interchange at 80th Street is shocking: https://www.vancourier.com/245-milli...lta-1.23635997

I think it's like the 72nd Ave intersection. It's in the middle of Burns Bog, so making it a full interchange would have serious negative impacts to the Bog. (the creation of the SFPR did too, but :P)

80th Ave is so strange though. It looks like it was somehow designed to have an extension deep into Burns Bog where it meets Hwy 17. A conspiracy? ;)

^^seriously, what's the deal with 80th south of 17??! It's like there is a plan for a huge development

Well, if the intersection between Highway 91 and 72nd Avenue has become a bidirectional interchange, so can Highway 17 and 80th Street. If the environmental impact’s too severe, what about a 2-lane roundabout there (one that’s big enough to accommodate truck traffic)? It’s not like the speed limit of SFPR will hit 100 km/h anyway.

80th and SFPR is one of the few places in the Metro-Vancouver region where the land for an interchange is already owned by / available to the MOT.

It was originally going to be an interchange (don't feel like digging up the schematics) but was cut at the last moment to make the pile driving contract cheaper (just for us to spend more money on it in the future, which is related to my biggest beef regarding the GMT project that involves any scheme that retains the existing structure).

That said, i am surprised this project didn't involve a full interchange as well (I guess the feds are just as cheap).

Oh well, at least the embarrassment that is the Sunbury Interchange will end up better than originally envisioned when it too was to be an interchange from the get go.

On the bright side, when these projects are done, one can go from New West to Tsawwassen wit only one traffic light.

I think that’s even scarier simply because now everyone will be surprised by it.

In Manitoba, on TCH, the 2 sets of traffic lights in Brandon are much safer than the one at Yellowhead Highway immediately west of Portage La Prairie.

I still think that this intersection should be converted to a roundabout with future provision to turn it into an interchange.

I totally get what you are saying, and they will be surprised by it seeing how it will be 25km or so stretch of Highway with a single light, but I don’t think the roundabout is the answer. Such an investment will only postpone the inevitable interchange even further. Best just to ish the interchange now. Even with this intermediate solution being added it is very low investment (and a percaentage or two of this overall program) so an interchange is still within a ten year scope.

In B.C.’s defense, it’s already quite impressive that it even found a place to put down Highway 17 Extension. ;) Of course things could have been better, but they also could have been worse. :)

I was attempting to improve the connection between SFPR and TCH (south of which it becomes Pacific Highway) today. Here's what I've got:
http://imgur.com/tgDFjYI
For comparison, one can search "Barnston Island" on google map and scroll down to look.

Notes:
(1) Traffic heading from TCH W to 15S uses the new ramp from TCH W to Golden Ears Way W, then loop back to 15S. Heading from 15N to TCH E, one will turn right onto GEW E then use the ramp from there to access TCH E. In fact, now that I think about it, I should have closed the intersection of GEW with 180th Street altogether, and join the 2 sections of 96 Avenue west of the cloverleaves.
(2) (IMO) The proximity between GEW and TCH makes weaving inevitable unless a 2+2+2+2 express-collector system be employed on that segment of Pacific Highway. I think ssiguy will love that idea. ;)
(3) I wasn't able to include SFPR @ 104 Avenue (Golden Ears Connector) in the picture. (4) I tried drawing things to scale but probably did not.

Drove over the Alex Fraser Saturday July 27 to check out the shrunken lanes and the new speed limit. Honestly you can barely tell the lanes are shrunken. No different than the widths on the second narrows. Oh and no one in my lanes throughout the length of the bridge was doing 70. Not even the 340 bus. What a joke the government is with their nanny stateism.

Not even the bus :haha:

Speed limit on Second Narrows is also 70 km/h though. Maybe Highway 91’s better built on both ends of the bridge so the speed limit could have stayed at 80 km/h? On the other hand, the lane drops on both sides of Second Narrows are ridiculous...

Also, any thoughts about what I drew (as shown in that link)? :)

Yeah, I never drive more than 80 km/h over Second Narrows due to its profile but Alex Fraser could certainly remain 90 km/h without any issue.

This has nothing to do with highway 17

Well once you get down the bridge it’s 91-17 connector, so in a very very remote sense, it sort of does. ;)

But yea any thought about my proposal about 17-15-1-GEW in Barnston? People gave some feedbacks in the BC Highway Construction thread.

The entire SFPR and GE connector should be brought up to complete freeway standards so one could travel the entire route with no stopping. A highway, like a transit line, is only as strong as it's weakest link. Both Twas village interesections should have interchanges so one could travel from the ferry to MR or Hope on full limited access highways.

If BC wasn't so incredibly cheap with highways, it actually wouldn't take much time or money to give the region at least a decent highway system. Overpasses on the MHB, build the Serpentine Exp with interchanges on HWY#15 and not only would it make for far faster travel but also much safer as it would help get the transports off the local roads.

How about upgrading many of our local highways to freeway standards, including

1) SFPR
2) Mary Hill Bypass
3) Highway 15 & Highway 10?

I hit those couple bumps when I was back in the area earlier this month.

Was kind of hoping that their repairs were going to be part of the new interchange project, guess not.

We have to wait 3 to 5 years for them to do a permanent fix... In the meantime smoothing and repaving every year...

Have to love the sparks flying when one of the car lands after launching. :cheers:

That is not the only area plagued with poor design. There is also a large bump related to the kinder morgan trans mountain crossing east of Patello Bridge. The pipeline is protected by an at grade bridge. There was no densification each side to allow for settling.

Building on Bog is very challenging and old landfills are just being blamed for poor design on a design build project. Look at how much some of the parking lots around town have settled relating to the buildings on piles.

Port MAnn highway 1 has the same issues in a few places also.

BC’s famously shoddy highway levelling practices are finally gaining media attention. I’ve been saying for years how no other place in North America has as many sunken dips and bumps in their highway as BC, especially the lower mainland. It comes down to value engineering.

I've wondered that about some of the municipal roads in Burnaby as well, such as Still Creek Drive and the multiple bumps and dips on Gilmore near the Home Depot.

Gilmore stretch in front of home depot is a bridge for a block or so. The problem is that the buildings that were built around that area are set on piles. where as the road is designed to float and bumps and dips show up when utilities cross the roads. As they dont settle or float the same as the road. And add the dewatering used in the buildings to keep the parking dry plus seasonal change in water table.

Gilmore stretch in front of home depot is a bridge for a block or so. The problem is that the buildings that were built around that area are set on piles. where as the road is designed to float and bumps and dips show up when utilities cross the roads. As they dont settle or float the same as the road. And add the dewatering used in the buildings to keep the parking dry plus seasonal change in water table.

I nearly got some air going eastbound at the 50 km/h speed limit on 16th Avenue near Mt. St. Joseph hospital in Vancouver a couple of days ago. That stretch of 16th Avenue has always been problematic, but there's a particular dip there that seems to have suddenly worsened over the past week or so since I drove it last.

It sounded like my the loaded bike rack was going to tear itself right off the hitch - if I had any doubts about how solid it was they're sure gone now...

Really? I'd like to learn more about that, are you aware of any good sites that discuss it? I'll search, of course.

You might have to bring it up in the road infrastructure discussion thread.

I see they finally patched up the suspension rattling gouges at that ridiculous at grade rail crossing. Wonder how long the semis and other cars gouge it up again.

https://www.delta-optimist.com/news/...way-1.24037272

No mention of 80th Street, though.

The new interchange at River Road is news to me.

Need to look deeper into that.

It's in the thread's first post.

Haha, never mind, I got confused. Seeing how close they are together I kind of think of them as a single interchange.

They are very close together. Should be another challenging series for out of towners.

https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2020TRAN0038-000276

Do the 91 Connector and Nordel Way is just getting upgrades and not a full interchange like I'm the renders of this thread ? What a shock another scaled down project from this cheap government. Actually surprised the NDP didn't can this too .

@flipper316 Could you edit your post a bit? The words seem to be out of order so I have hard time understanding everything you’re saying, other than that NDP’s cheapening out again (which I guess is the most important part).

Well, at this point, I’ll say this: Wherever the traffic light on the connector remains, we will convert them to roundabouts down the road, so long as doing so won’t mess with the bog. The intersections with the connector are too close for any meaningful grade separation anyway.

Even a two-lane roundabout is not going to work with all the truck traffic. It really needs an interchange as anything else is waste of money.

As first thing though they should tune the traffic lights turning westbound on Highway 17 from Nordel as currently only few cars can make each green arrow. It takes forever to get on the highway.

For some reason the wording for the connector has never said "interchange" despite the renderings always showing such, so not sure why that is.

Anyways, I am pretty sure that these are new renderings of the project (at least I didn't notice them until this week).

Largely the same (but more detailed) except for the connector / 91 interchange upgrade.

The entire project:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...50e870d6_b.jpgSunbury1 by Ian, on Flickr

Highway 17 / the connector zoomed in:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...fe8af771_b.jpgSunbury2 by Ian, on Flickr

The connector and highway 91 zoomed in:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...33daa185_b.jpgSunbury3 by Ian, on Flickr

Wow. All the interweaving. That's bonkers!