Commuters wanting to take a shortcut to get to the Dominion Triangle in Port Coquitlam may have a longer drive.
Last month, the city started its $1.2-million upgrade of Burns Road, a capital project in this year's budget that will see a new water main installed on the west side as well as the 1-km stretch repaved.
Crews will narrow the road to one lane during water line work this spring and it's likely, this summer, Burns will be limited to local traffic for the repaving, said Kirsten Meersman, PoCo's director of engineering and operations.
Coun. Brad West, who chairs the city's transportation solutions and public works committee, said the road is in dire need of a makeover. And since so many vehicles are using the route as a way to get to the Dominion big box stores as well as Lougheed Highway and the Mary Hill bypass, there are also safety concerns, especially as Burns is flanked by wide ditches.
Burns homeowners - most of them farmers - have also said they're worried about the road condition and extra traffic, West said. (In 2013, there were two crashes reported to ICBC at the Burns/Prairie intersection.)
According to the city's 2013 master transportation plan, Burns Road is designated as a future Major Road Network (MRN) link as it will form nearly half of the Fremont Connector, the route for which city council adopted last week.
Under an MRN designation, the city would be eligible for funding from TransLink and other government sources.
Mayor Greg Moore said the city has already applied for a grant under the Build Canada program; if that is approved, the municipal, provincial and federal governments would each pay for one third of a project to four-lane Burns at a total cost of $25 million. That project would also involve land acquisition along Burns, Meersman said.
@jwarrenTC
