Hwy 99 Fraser River Tunnel (George Massey Replacement) | Proposed

[Zassk]

The Steveston interchange is indeed a mess. I have to use it for non-freeway-related travel almost every day, and I wish there was a suitable alternative.

What bothers me most is that there's an existing freeway overpass at the mouth of the tunnel, which has been only lightly used for the past 55 years, since the road (Rice Mill Rd) only services an industrial building. It would be possible to leverage that overpass to move some of the traffic movements away from Steveston Hwy and provide traffic relief for 5-10 years until a new crossing is built.

For a few $hundred thousand, MoT could build a southbound offramp to/from Rice Mill Rd, on the abandoned scale land, and thereby eliminate one of the worst traffic lights at the Steveston Interchange. Or the City of Richmond could extend Rice Mill Rd eastward to make it a through road, thus providing an alternate route across the freeway. Any of these things would reduce the amount of traffic clogging the Steveston interchange.

Anyway, I assume that when the new crossing is built, Steveston Hwy will end up with a large interchange similar to Westview and Lonsdale, with traffic lights on either side of the freeway but a large cross-section to keep traffic moving. There isn't enough space to build a parclo or anything else on the west side of the freeway (unless the freeway itself is realigned to the east, which would mean the end of the pumpkin patch!).