Pattullo Bridge Summer Weekend Closures
July 7, 2014
Pattullo Bridge Summer Weekend Closures
July 7, 2014
Due to maintenance and repairs, the Pattullo Bridge will be closed to all traffic (including bicycles and pedestrians) for three weekends this summer:
- July 25-28
- August 15-18
- August 29-September 1
On the first weekend of closures, the bridge will close at 8 p.m. on Friday night and reopen at 3 a.m. on Monday morning. On the following weekends, the bridge will close at 9 p.m. on Friday night and re-open at 3 a.m. on Monday morning.
Motorists should plan alternate routes to cross the Fraser River and transit customers should plan for longer travel times on the N19 and #321 during those weekends.
For more information, click here to see the press release or visit http://www.translink.ca/pattullo.
Author: Jennifer Morland
Provincial law mandates we should have a free alternative to the Port Mann. Will the Port Mann be free during those weekends, then?
Hi @Cliff. We understand that tolls on the Port Mann Bridge – operated by the separately owned Transportation Investment Corporation – will not be waived during the closures. There are several other vehicle commute alternatives, including the Alex Fraser Bridge and the George Massey Tunnel. Transit is also a viable option, including SkyTrain, and the new Expressbus service over the Port Mann.
Honestly the BC tolling policy of mandating a free alternative should be done away with. Nothing is free, certainly not multi-million(billion?) dollar bridges. I would be supportive of nominal tolls ($1-ish) solely for demand management and to make people think twice if their trip is worth it. Your alternative to the toll is transit. I can understand in communities where they don’t have the level of public transportation we do here it makes sense to have a free alternative to a toll, but in Vancouver there are a lot more options.
I’d like to see those nominal tolls across all the bridges, including the downtown ones and used to shape traffic by offering discounted prices to those who commute during off peak hours.
South of Fraser motorists getting the short end of the stick when it comes to bridge tolls.
Why just the bridges downtown? Let’s also toll the roads to SFU and UBC. Those are great locations for a tolls, especially since they have excellent transit service.
BTW… the fuel taxes in each litre was designed to be a regional toll to minimize infrastructure costs to build tolls. This was introduced about a decade ago.
@Cliff: I don’t like the thinking that “South of the Fraser motorists are getting the short end of the stick”. It’s like you don’t consider people commuting, or just generally using, the bridge in the other direction who still pay the toll. I’m mean its not necessarily SoF drivers paying for the bridge, its whoever uses it!! And I think we could agree that whoever uses it (regardless of where they are from) should pay a portion of it, the fact that people SoF use it more is moot.
But I do agree with you that if we are switching to a demand management perspective (as opposed to paying off project costs), the tolls should be evenly distributed around the region.
Hi everyone, where is our money? I guess Canadians are too soft on the subject of money. If we have one toll bridge we should toll them all. Are we all equal by race, color of the skin, religion, place of birth, a bank account …? I have traveled around the world and I have not seen tolled bridges …We have teachers on strike, this country gets poorer and poorer, a lot of people are being fed up with the Canadian economy, etc. I have never heard about bridge’s tolls before till now. I have another idea … we should have all intersections with cameras, including 4-way intersections … Just a thought. “They” are squeezing us more, and more to milk more money from us. I wonder how long it will take for Canadians to wake up and protest for the week governing of this Province and Country.
You’ve travelled around the world and not seen tolled bridges?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_toll_bridges
Tolling certain bridges and roads is a sucker punch coming from corporations looking for new ways to bilk taxpayers. Large (mostly European) consortiums flush with cash come into a backwater like Canada and offer to Design/Build/Operate infrastructure for a fee. Since they put up the infrastructure, repugnant governments like the BC Liberals, welcome an opportunity to provide services (bridges/roads/hospitals/schools/etc)with no upfront increase in taxes. They like to brag about it. Trouble is, we the suckers end up paying for these new toys for generations to come, making us serfs in our own country. This is just another form of public slavery. Enjoy.