South Fraser Perimeter Road/Highway 17 Extension | Completed

[Mininari]

Originally Posted by makr3trkr

It's shameful they've had 10 years to figure signage out and there's NO signage telling you the road even exists from Highway 91/Alex Fraser.

I have heard complaints from people unfamiliar with the area and unsure of which exit to take/direction to go.

Yep, I hear you. I'm VERY familiar with the area (25-year GVRD 'experience'). However, I hesistated just long enough to 'miss' the 'river rd' exit (as signed) heading south off the AFB, and ended up begrudgingly turning around in someone's driveway off of Nordel way to correct my error. I wasn't the only one doing the ole turn-around either!

Honestly, they'll probably fix this soon, but if its still like this in a few months, I will happily write a letter to the MoTH.

[GMasterAres]

Originally Posted by makr3trkr

It's shameful they've had 10 years to figure signage out and there's NO signage telling you the road even exists from Highway 91/Alex Fraser.

I have heard complaints from people unfamiliar with the area and unsure of which exit to take/direction to go.

What about simple reflectors from the Viaduct under Alex Fraser Bridge to Tannery? They have side markers but for most of that stretch both direction they have failed to install any reflectors. When it is raining and dark you physically can not see the lane lines and I have witnessed now 3 different evenings like the above (we do live in a city that gets rain afterall) trucks and cars drifting in and out of what I 'guess' are the lanes because they simply can't see them as I can't.

Have written a complaint into the ministry and the company in charge of the SFPR (late December) but no response at all. Very similar to the above issue with signing. Not to mention when you are eastbound, you hit the main sign that says "Surrey 12 km" but you're only about 4km away from Tannery. Is it 12km to some imaginary dot in Surrey somewhere random?

I would have thought it should actually tell you where you enter Surrey or reach the first exit at the very least. I mean you technically enter Surrey 1km after the sign that tells you it is 12km away!"

I was told they sign based on the next exit thus why when you're Eastbound on HWY1 right after you get past the final exit before the PMB there is a giant sign that says "Welcome to Surrey" even though you are still in Coquitlam until you actually cross and vice versa Westbound where on the Surrey side it says "Welcome to Coquitlam". If that is the case, then the stupid sign shouldn't read Surrey 12km, it should read Surrey 4km (Where the Tannery interchange is and first exit into 'Surrey') imo.

[makr3trkr]

from tranbc flickr


Highway 99



Tilbury



Tannery


Really hope once the Patullo is replaced, they remove that dog leg and straighten the curve out under the new crossing.

Wasn't there supposed to be a new southbound HOV on Hwy 99 through the interchange?

[s211]

Originally Posted by jhausner

Have written a complaint into the ministry and the company in charge of the SFPR (late December) but no response at all. Very similar to the above issue with signing. Not to mention when you are eastbound, you hit the main sign that says "Surrey 12 km" but you're only about 4km away from Tannery. Is it 12km to some imaginary dot in Surrey somewhere random?

As I understand it, all distance signs are based on how far to some town's "centre", however that gets defined, and not how far to the town's border.

[CourierYVR]

Originally Posted by makr3trkr

I remember when you could drive along Commissioner/Stewart/Centennial/Waterfront road in Vancouver and nobody would stop you, but that was a long time ago, and maybe it had more to do with traffic management.

Yes, there was a time not long ago (pre-911 hoax), when the Commissioner/Stewart/Centennial/Waterfront road(s) were
accessible to anyone, wether on business, or for a bite to eat at the now closed and highly esteemed Cannery restaurant.

The strange thing is the atrocious and unwarranted security. As an example, non-container traffic can only enter the waterfront via the Heatly street overpass. I have a valid photo ID port pass, but it seems to be a piece of garbage according to the security guard at the Heatly overpass entrance. And if your destination is between Victoria drive and McGill street, you will probably end up waiting an additional 20 minutes needlessly for the various train crossings.

I see no reason why the Robson road to Timberland road to Tannery road needs to be chained locked. What they did was change the plan for an Elevator road overpass. It was suppossed to link with Grace road.

[andasen]

Originally Posted by s211

As I understand it, all distance signs are based on how far to some town's "centre", however that gets defined, and not how far to the town's border.

Generally its to the address of the historic location of the central post office. If the place is old enough, it might be the historic location of city hall. Surrey would be post office.

[Pinion]

Port security really is a joke. You can say virtually anything to get them to open the often unmanned gate at Heatley, from "I'm picking up my girl/boyfriend" to "I'm delivering a pizza." I've said nothing more than "shit I forgot my pass" and got in (really did forget). You can walk through and no one will say anything. Only some of the specific port companies take it seriously - some are like Guantanamo Bay and way overkill in the other direction.

The same port is mostly un-fenced and un-guarded on the north side of the inlet, because apparently even terrorists hate crossing those bridges?

[CourierYVR]

Originally Posted by Pinion

Port security really is a joke. You can say virtually anything to get them to open the often unmanned gate at Heatley, from "I'm picking up my girl/boyfriend" to "I'm delivering a pizza." I've said nothing more than "shit I forgot my pass" and got in (really did forget). You can walk through and no one will say anything. Only some of the specific port companies take it seriously - some are like Guantanamo Bay and way overkill in the other direction.

The same port is mostly un-fenced and un-guarded on the north side of the inlet, because apparently even terrorists hate crossing those bridges?

Well yeah, even the Heatly road overpass security guard barely speaks a word of English.

Do doubt when Li Ka-Shing took over the entire waterfront ports of Vancouver lots of people lost their jobs.

Now we have to deal with the 9-11 hoax in order to secure his assets.

[GMasterAres]

Originally Posted by andasen

Generally its to the address of the historic location of the central post office. If the place is old enough, it might be the historic location of city hall. Surrey would be post office.

Which ultimately is fairly dumb. It should be when you either enter the city limits or the location of the first exit you can use to "enter the city."

[s211]

Originally Posted by jhausner

Which ultimately is fairly dumb. It should be when you either enter the city limits or the location of the first exit you can use to "enter the city."

Pretty sure this is SOP. Dumb? Do you want to be the province that has to re-jig it's signs every time a city annexes territory?

Nonetheless, I have seen the odd city listed as "City X Boundary" or "City Centre" on distance signs.

[Stingray2004]

Originally Posted by DKaz

Does anyone have the original drawings? I tried looking through the Environmental Assessment but it doesn't appear to be there anymore.

Yep. Still at BC EAO.

Project Description/Cross-Sections:

http://a100.gov.bc.ca/appsdata/epic/docu...703_8472cae2a0154601bf12ab205e7b4d0f.pdf

Conceptual Alignments:

http://a100.gov.bc.ca/appsdata/epic/html/deploy/epic_document_196_22426.html

[GMasterAres]

Originally Posted by s211

Pretty sure this is SOP. Dumb? Do you want to be the province that has to re-jig it's signs every time a city annexes territory?

Nonetheless, I have seen the odd city listed as "City X Boundary" or "City Centre" on distance signs.

Really? I think you're wrong as it doesn't seem to be. On HWY 99 you cross a sign past Steveston that says 11km to Vancouver, 27km to Surrey. If you continue on HWY99 and onto Oak Street Bridge, 11km mark puts you at 66th street... not even Oakridge. So that's the city center?

27km also going to Surrey if you take any route either lands you in Delta or the closest to City Center in Surrey you get to is about 128th street and 88th Ave.

This was before the SFPR btw.

You then drive on HWY 1 just at 152nd interchange there is a sign that says "Burnaby 11, Vancouver 27."

So from that point along HWY 1, 27km = is only to downtown Vancouver if you exit 1st Ave. If you exit Grandview it leaves you at 12th and Cambie. Not that bad. Hastings and you don't get to downtown.

So that would seem to match your SOP like you claim... but it said 11KM to Burnaby... 11km from that sign puts you at.. Gaglardi which is guess what, the first exit into Burnaby and about 15km short of Metrotown.

I don't buy the SOP business. The mark distances purely on an imaginary point at the time they placed the sign and every single sign on every single highway picks a different dot because they all contradict themselves. Drive on HWY 1 and hit the sign at 152nd and it may be accurate to downtown Vancouver (City Center). Drive down HWY 99 from Seattle and hit the sign at Steveston, and the distance doesn't even put you at Oakridge. Same Ministry isn't it?

Should it all be "uniform" if it is SOP?

So I do actually think it is dumb sorry. If it was to city borders or better yet, the first exit you can get off the major highway and into the city in question, it would make far more sense and be far more simpler to make standard. How often do towns annex land in this Province really? And if you made it based on first exit, how often does that change? It changes when you completely reconfigure the highway in question or add/remove an exit at which point, you have to replace signs anyway! Wouldn't that be a better standard than a post office a city had back in 1805?

[nname]

Sometimes city boundary is not really a good indicator though, as it can extend far out of the populated area. One example is that Coquihalla Hwy first enters the City of Kamloops at exit 355. But the next 11km is still in the middle of nowhere until you first see residential area at exit 366. The exit to downtown is exit 369, but there still a 2km drive to go into downtown. What is the most logical place to measure the distance from for this case then? IMO its most definitely not exit 355.

[makr3trkr]

from bclocalnews.com

[go_leafs_go02]

Truck has rolled over on the SFPR south of Highway 99. Based on what I can see on the traffic layout, it's right in one of the tight corners that doesn't give you much if any wiggle room in the median.


https://twitter.com/bumblebeen


https://twitter.com/bumblebeen

[Mininari]

Ouch, well THAT didn't take long. This road's barely been open a month and we've got a major rollover accident. Is traffic getting around this at all? Google traffic is showing the black-red northbound (heavy / slow), but green southbound, except through the SFPR/99 interchange.

Edit... ok southbound 'green' is disappearing, indicating southbound is totally blocked.

Speeding? Or an example of why going with an 80km/hr design was a bad idea? Or PROVING why the speed limit should be 80 because of large trucks.

[makr3trkr]

Rollovers are going to happen even if the speed limit was 40 km/hr throughout.

There is always going to be a lunatic fringe of unattentive or aggressive drivers, and there will always be unfortunate accidents.

That said, having a higher design speed than the limit would have been smart.

Luckily nobody was beside the truck at the time.

[Mininari]

Originally Posted by makr3trkr

To be fair, rollovers are going to happen even if the speed limit was 40 km/hr throughout.

There are always going to be a lunatic fringe of unattentive or aggressive drivers, and there will always be unfortunate accidents.

That said, having a higher design speed than the limit would have been smart.

Very true.
But I found that some of those curves were a little 'white-knuckling' at times, made me slow down (which I'm sure is the intent)... but it puts this accident into perspective. This guy was maybe running late, or just pushing it a bit, hit the curve and boom.

[Pinion]

Yep, truckers are massive idiots. Don't overreact.

[Tfreder]

Originally Posted by Pinion

Yep, truckers are massive idiots. Don't overreact.

Let's keep the widespread stereotyping to a minimum, shall we?

Thankfully the truck didn't roll over onto another car. Is this the first major accident on the SFPR?