Image: Supplied by City of Chilliwack / Final improvements to the ongoing Vedder Road widening project should be completed this coming week.

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Vedder widening

As Vedder Road project nears completion, Chilliwack mayor acknowledges challenging past year

Jul 17, 2022 | 6:52 AM

CHILLIWACK — Motorists accustomed to construction-related bottlenecks on Vedder Road between Keith Wilson Road and Watson-Promontory Road, or just the appearance of an unfinished public works project, won’t be the only ones happy to see it completed this month.

Work is scheduled to wrap up on the final phase of the Vedder Road widening project the next few weeks. Depending on weather, final curb and sidewalk works, line markings, streetlight installations, centre turning lane construction, and traffic signal improvements will occur this week.

Once it’s done, Chilliwack mayor Ken Popove can breathe a sigh of relief.

Image: Supplied by City of Chilliwack / Mayor Ken Popove says the Vedder Road widening project has been a big ‘pain in the butt.'”

“I know Vedder Road has been a big pain in my butt,” Popove said during a recent sit-down interview at 89.5 JR Country studios in downtown Chilliwack. “There’s infrastructure issues here in town that we’ve been working on.”

Black Dog

Led Zeppelin tribute act comes to Chilliwack

A few moments ago

Fire Response

Mission firefighters respond to over 100 fire calls in March

2h ago

Motorcycle Accident

Highway Patrol officer rear-ended by another during motorcycle training in Surrey

4h ago

Popove said B.C. Hydro has been dealing, in the past year, with heavy rain, landslides, conduit blowouts, and on top of all that, relocating poles along Vedder Road.

“You factor in two feet of rain, 40 instances of landslides and culvert blowouts, that sort of thing,” Popove said. “Hydro had to pivot their work, move poles, and restore power in a lot of areas. So, it’s been a challenging year. There’s no question.”

Popove says he wanted work on the Vedder corridor to accelerate, but he was limited by his legislative powers as mayor.

“I’m legislated to do X, Y and Z,” he said. “To move mountains, sorry, I can’t do that.”

This coming Wednesday (Jul. 20), there will be an intersection blackout at Vedder and Watson in order to remove the existing traffic light standard base and pole at the southwest corner.