Image: Image: Cassandra Courtemanche, used with permission / Highway 1 traffic is clogged on a summer day earlier this year east of Abbotsford. Two Chilliwack city councillors pressed officials from the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MOTI) to move faster on improvements to Highway 1 between Abbotsford and Chilliwack, and for some kind of specific time frame for when these improvements might occur.

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Highway 1 upgrades in the Fraser Valley

Chilliwack councillors frustrated by lack of specific timelines for Highway 1 upgrades

Oct 11, 2023 | 10:21 PM

CHILLIWACK — Two Chilliwack city councillors pressed officials from the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MOTI) to move faster on improvements to Highway 1 between Abbotsford and Chilliwack, and for some kind of specific time frame for when these improvements might occur.

MOTI personnel attended the monthly meeting of the FVRD board on Thursday, September 28, and Tuesday’s (Oct. 10) meeting of Chilliwack city council. During both meetings, BC government staff presented an overview of the multi-phase improvements coinciding with the Fraser Valley Highway 1 Corridor Improvement Program.

Construction is currently underway on phase 2 between 216 Street and 264 Street, with substantial completion anticipated by late 2025.

Phase 3A will include improvements and widening along a 13-km length of Highway 1 between 264 Street and the Mount Lehman Road interchange (exit 83). Advanced works include tree clearing, median soil removal, preload, property acquisition, and utilities. An RFQ for the 264 Street interchange design-build has been issued.

Phase 3B includes improvements along an 8-km stretch of Highway 1 from Mount Lehman Road to Highway 11 (exit 92). This phase will feature new high occupancy vehicle and electric vehicle lanes, shoulder bus lanes, as well as the full replacement of the Peardonville and Riverside structures, active transportation improvements on the McCallum and Clearbrook overcrossings, an extension of the truck lane from phase 3A and a full redesign of the Highway 11 (Sumas Way) interchange. MOTI staff are also examining options like additional truck parking as well as opportunities for supportive housing and transit-oriented housing near transit hubs and bus lines. Phase 3B is currently in the design stage.

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Phase 4 will involve improvements between Hwy. 11 (exit 92), east Abbotsford, and Yale Road West (exit 109) in Chilliwack, but is still in the planning stage. This stage of the project has been pulled back to enable MOTI staff to make better use of planning resources and ensure best planning decisions are undertaken.

However, the lack of specific time frames involving phase 4 didn’t sit well with Councillors Bud Mercer and Chris Kloot, both of whom challenged provincial government staff at both meetings.

“I still rest somewhere between hopeful and pessimistic because I don’t see any dates here for Chilliwack,” said a somewhat exasperated Mercer. “All we’re doing is moving a bottleneck eastbound. For people that are forced to run this s-show (sh** show) daily or every second day, why are you not looking at some of the low hanging fruit? I’ll probably be in the old folks home with no driver’s license by the time it reaches Chilliwack. You’re not giving us dates anymore. I can’t help but think there’s a real good reason for that. It’s becoming too late.”

Image: City of Chilliwack / Chilliwack Councillor Bud Mercer speaks during Tuesday’s city council meeting.

Elena Farmer, a project director with MOTI, calmly and diplomatically said, “We did hear you loud and clear at the FVRD meeting and also we did take that back to see if there is an opportunity to address some these low-hanging fruits. We understand the priority and the urgency, and it’s really why we’ve been working really hard to get 3A into construction next year. I think it’s a positive step with the RFQ for the 264 Street interchange. We’re currently working through proposals.”

Image: City of Chilliwack / Elena Farmer (left) and Stephanie Rothman from the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure.

MOTI staff said they expect to have more information on timelines towards the end of 2023.

Mercer would later apologize for his comments at Tuesday’s meeting, but not before issuing a pointed rebuttal to provincial staff.

“It’s part of our commerce; it’s because everyday we’re backed up all the way to Abbotsford and Langley,” he said. “A presentation that puts more focus on when we can expect more shovels in the ground is helpful. It’s wonderful to know what’s happening to our partners in Surrey, but I don’t think people in Chilliwack give a damn. We don’t seem to be getting that information from the government, not yourselves. We’ve even gotten mixed messages as to what’s the right date. Any firm information would be helpful. I apologize for my comments.”

Councillor Chris Kloot was just as pointed in his remarks. He recalled a conversation he had with then-Minister of Infrastructure and Communities François-Philippe Champagne, who visited Chilliwack in 2019 for a Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

Image: City of Chilliwack / Chilliwack Councillor Chris Kloot speaks during Tuesday’s council meeting. Kloot, like fellow Councillor Bud Mercer, expressed frustration at the lack of timelines for improvements through to Chilliwack, and said the province is years away when it comes to improving Hwy. 1.

“The question I asked him is how important is it to have funding available,” Kloot said during Tuesday’s meeting. “He made it really clear that the money was there. The money was available. It had to be a priority of the provincial government. Here we are four years later; we are seeing some steps, gradual steps.”

Kloot said the roughly $25 million spent on the variable speed corridor along Highway 1 between Chilliwack and Abbotsford was not an effective use of taxpayer dollars, adding that the speed corridor recently broadcast a message about dense fog ahead on a day when there were sunny skies – and no fog whatsoever.

“It’s been said we’re probably 20-25 years too late, and now we have to play catchup,” Kloot said. “The NDP government alluded to rail transit into the Fraser Valley a few budgets ago. That was it. It was a nice line in their agenda that never materialized. I’m hoping there are some quick wins, things that can be done today, not 5, 10 or 15 years from now. We’re growing at 2 per cent a year, and people are going to need their cars, they need to get places. I’m hopeful there can be money to improve on-ramps. Many on-ramps, like 264 Street or Whatcom, are way too short. People are hitting the highway at 60-70 kilometres an hour.”