XPost: van.general, bc.politics, misc.transport.trucking

On Mon, 17 Jul 2006 02:58:18 GMT, bill van
<billvan@separatethis.canada.com> wrote:

In article <1153096832.820210.309740@m79g2000cwm.googlegroups.com>,
"Greg Carr" <gregpcarr@yahoo.ca> wrote:

No thumbs-up for Gateway project

By Dan Ferguson
Staff Reporter
Jul 14 2006

Delta residents will just have to live with a less than ideal version
of the South Fraser Perimeter Road (SFPR) proposed by the provincial
government's Gateway program, Mayor Lois Jackson predicted Monday.

(snip)

More than 200 homes will fall for Perimeter Road

By Jeff Nagel
Black Press
Jun 30 2006

Surrey will take the brunt of an estimated 215 home demolitions that
will be required to make way for the planned South Fraser Perimeter
Road.

(snip)

The only way the opponents are going to stop this thing is by
protesting it.

The residents of Delta and Surrey don't want to stop it. Surrey is
nearly unanimous in support of the whole Gateway project. Delta is very
much in favour of the South Fraser Perimeter Road, but not very happy
about the Trans-Canada Highway/Port Mann Bridge expansion.

In Surrey there's one neighbourhood -- the one the perimeter highway
will go through -- that doesn't like it. In Delta, they desperately want
the truck highway. It's not just for Deltaport, it's also to relieve
pressure on River Road, take some traffic off the congested existing >highways, etc. They just think it should go a slightly different route,
part of it through tunnels.

Protesting won't help at all in this case, although people should
certainly protest if they want to. Remember what happened when the
residents of West Vancouver protested the Highway 99 route? That's
right, nothing. Kevin Falcon is determined to punch these projects
through. Hell, two thirds of the municipal governments in the region,
plus the regional government, are opposed to the Port Mann project, and >that's having no effect so far.

I work in the transportation/warehousing industry so I
can see the need for the project but I don't see industry doing
anything to pay for it.

Industry is promising prosperity by making B.C. the so-called gateway
between China and North America for container traffic. The Liberals have >adopted that as their primary economic strategy. To the provincial >government, the additional traffic they expect is huge payment. And if
it works, the economic activity will generate a lot of new tax revenue.

Container traffic at Delta Port has actually dropped this year, since
their major customer Hapag-Lloyd left, and many of the modern container
ships can't fit in the Fraser river channel. But the port authorities
like the YVR mngmt before them say it is inevitable that the growth
will happen.

The growth will only happen -- probably -- if the facilities are there, >including the roads. If it does, though, think of what happens the next
time the Chinese economy tanks, like it did in the 1990s. That's right,
B.C. also tanks.

Port-wise, though, you have two of them mixed up. Deltaport isn't on the >river, it's on the Strait just up the coast from the Tsawwassen ferry >terminal. No problem with lack of deep water. It's Fraserport that's
having the problem with traffic being down.

The residents of Annieville and Sunbury in Delta and Royal Heights in
Surrey will be most affected by this project. If they shut down the
HUDD Distribution facilities and the other lesser foreign owned
terminals the project will not be necessary. These companies do nothing
for the community, cause accidents on River Rd and congestion and are
now using their political might to push the project through with the
govt.

Even if nothing changes, the South Fraser Perimeter Road is a good idea >because all the truck traffic now goes along River Road, right through
those communities. The question is whether the route the Liberals have
chosen will just wreck those communities in a different way, and it well >might.

Complaining to the media and MPs and MLAs as well as municipal
authorities is one course of action. Demonstrations and picketing of
the access points to the terminals is another. These companies are
powerful enough that the local newspaper media never report their names
when they are involved in news items. Instead only the unit block is
given.

Do you mean the port authorities, which are not companies, or the
companies that do business in the ports? If you read the business pages,
they are all regularly named.

bill

You're trying to hold an intelligent conversation with an idiot. Don't
waste your time..

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