Your feedback is wanted on the redesign of the Taylor Bridge replacement, which is critical for the transportation of goods and services in and out of NEBC with 30% of traffic volumes on the bridge being commercial.
We are seeking this input to assist BCTA in providing feedback to the province, as phase 2 of the public engagement is currently open for comment and closes on September 30.
BCTA met with the province early on in the discussion as part of the initial scoping period for this project. During that initial scoping meeting we raised the following concerns/interest:
- Bridge replacement needs to be built in such a manner to accommodate oversize and overweight traffic, which includes building to accommodate increased weights to reduce the need to perform bridge overload analysis. Approximately 50% of provincial extraordinary load permits travel through the peace region.
- Bridge capacity needs to be built to accommodate traffic demands for the future to allow for both population growth and increased commercial traffic volumes, not current traffic volumes.
- Final design of the bridge must be built to accommodate safe traffic movements in all weather conditions (ice, wind and rain).
- Province must ensure an alternative travel route(s) is established, including for extraordinary loads in advance of construction, or to build the replacement bridge immediately adjacent to the existing bridge which would be decommissioned once the new bridge is constructed.
During our initial meeting with the Province we also raised concern with Highway 97 road geotechnical and grade concerns leading on and off the bridge, to which the province advised that this is currently out of scope for the replacement project.
If you have any other concerns, please contact Cory Paterson, BCTA Vice President, by end of business September 9th.
If you would like to provide comments directly to the province, you can do so here: https://engage.gov.bc.ca/taylorbridge/
All comments must be submitted to the province prior to September 30.