The Editor,
An open letter to Richard Stewart, mayor of Coquitlam:
I have noted with interest your plan to try and replace the bailey bridge over the Brunette River. Your belief, it seems, is that a new bridge would relieve the bottleneck on that corridor and let traffic flow better.
Three points for your consideration:
If you put in a two-lane bridge with nothing else on that route, you are only going to move the bottleneck down to the multiple railway tracks further on. People driving that route will still be stuck in traffic as they wait for the many trains to pass or the lights at the congested corner to finally let them through.
In New Westminster, we are not in need of any more traffic on our streets. With the tolling of the Port Mann Bridge, we are not able to move around our in own city as it is.
During TransLink's United Boulevard extension meetings, many suggested the best solution was to remove the bailey bridge completely. You folks have a new King Edward overpass to service that area and need to plan to move traffic "the other way" versus trying to develop the rest of the land and send the traffic into New West, where it is not wanted. It was nice to see TransLink listened to citizens for once and put its UBE plans back on the shelf where they belong until they can figure out a way to move traffic through the entire North Fraser Perimeter Road versus trying to do things one step at a time, which will not work.
I would respectfully suggest that you, New West Mayor Wayne Wright and your respective engineering staff members meet on a nice sunny day out at the bridge site and watch traffic at about 4 p.m.
Vince Kreiser,
New Westminster
