Crowds flocked to the Pattullo Bridge on Nov. 15, 1937 to celebrate the grand opening of the new crossing between New Westminster and Surrey.
As a marching band performed and marched across the bridge, spectators lined the bridge. After the on-bridge celebration, folks gathered in Queen’s Park Arena for a fancy luncheon.
Named after then-Premier Thomas Dufferin (Duff) Pattullo, the bridge cost $4 million to build. It opened as a toll bridge, but those tolls were removed in 1952.
After carrying folks across the Fraser River for decades, calls for a new crossing began to heat up in the 1990s and the early 2000s, many in response to crashes that claimed the lives of more than a dozen motorists. Speed was cited as a contributing factor to some of the collisions, but many people noted the widths of bridge’s travel lanes no longer met modern-day Transportation Association of Canada guidelines.
In the 2000s, TransLink made repairs to the Pattullo Bridge to improve its safety and structural stability, but it also began working on plans for a new crossing. It noted that the bridge was operating at capacity.
In February 2018, the province announced it would build and assume ownership of the new Pattullo Bridge replacement. The new four-lane toll-free bridge will include modern, wider lanes that are separated by a centre median barrier, as well as dedicated walking and cycling lanes on both sides of the bridge that are separated from traffic by a barrier.
The 85-year-old Pattullo Bridge will continue to serve motorists, cyclists and pedestrians for a couple more years, as the new bridge isn’t set to open until 2024. The Record checked in with Wendy Itagawa, executive project director of the Pattullo Bridge replacement project, for an update on the $1.377-billion project.
“It's actually really progressing well,” she said.
Bridge foundations nearly complete
Folks walking along Columbia Street or driving over the Pattullo Bridge may notice some activity in the water and on the land on both sides of the Fraser River.
“We've been actively working, both in the river and on land, both in Surrey and in New West,” Itagawa said. “So, in the river, we've been progressing the main tower. So you'll see that going up in the water, the taller one. We finished the foundation for that tower last year.”
Itagawa said that part of the project included installation of 27 two-metre piles for the main foundation.
“Now, we're working upwards for the main tower, and we're on about eight. There's 33 segments going up on the tower; we're on our eighth, so almost 30,” she said. “We're also working to complete a secondary pier in the water as well. That's the one closer to the New West foreshore. We've been installing piles there, and we're just completing that now. So in the next week or so we should be done.”
Completing that work, which includes 15 piles, will be a “big milestone” as it signifies the completion of the in-water foundations for the bridge, Itagawa said.
“Then, we'll just be working upwards on those piers in the water,” she said. “And then on land, we have finished all the foundations for the bridge approaches, both on New West and Surrey side. So all the foundations are in there. And we are working upwards as well, just on the piers and then the columns and the column caps. So yeah, I think things are progressing quick.”
While completion of the in-water foundation in New West will soon be completed, Itagawa said some foundation work will still be required for some of the secondary ramps leading to the bridge.
“But the main, actual bridge, foundations will be complete this month. It is a big accomplishment, so we're pretty excited about that,” she said. “And then looking forward, I think 2023 is going to be continue to be a busy year.”
Itagawa said the project team will continue working up the tower construction, which will likely be completed next fall. She said people will also start seeing the installation of the steel girders (beams that support slabs) for the main bridge, as well as the concrete deck panels and cables.
“It'll be a lot more visible to the public as it's getting out of the water,” she said.
Itagawa said in-river pile driving should be completed in the next few weeks. She said pile driving for the main approach to the bridge has been completed on the New West side, but pile installation is still required for some of the secondary ramps.
In response to impacts created by the pandemic, the Pattullo Bridge replacement project team shifted the opening of the new bridge from 2023 to 2024.
“The new bridge will be opened in 2024,” Itagawa said. “We're working towards that, and things are really progressing well.”
According to Itagawa, the project hasn’t encountered any surprises on the construction front, but it has had to deal with the expected challenges of building a complex project in a “very constrained, highly urban” area. She said it’s also had to comply with a wide range of environmental requirements that come with building in and near the Fraser River.
Future expansion?
The Surrey Board of Trade recently and asked the province to clarify what would trigger a decision on increasing the number of lanes from four to six on the new crossing.
Itagawa said the new bridge will have four lanes, but it's being built to allow for a potential future expansion to six lanes. Before the bridge is ever expanded to six lanes, she said it would need to include consultation between the province, Indigenous groups, the cities of New Westminster and Surrey, and the Mayor's Council on Regional Transportation about what that would look like.
“A lot of our permitting is based on the four-lane bridge, so there would be a separate process to come to that decision before it actually came to, if it was ever deemed necessary,” she said.
If a decision was made to expand the bridge to six lanes, Itagawa said the walking and cycling lanes on each side of the crossing would be turned into vehicle lanes, and new walking and cycling paths would have to be added to the outside of the bridge.
“The structure's foundation is designed for a six-lane bridge,” she said. “We would just need to add on each side additional walking and cycling lanes.”
In addition, roads on either side of the bridge would also need to be considered before an expansion occurred.
“The local road networks are currently unable to accommodate additional traffic, so that would also need to be looked at,” Itagawa said. “So, future regional planning work would be required. Before you could upgrade the bridge, you would have to understand what road connections and changes would need to be done, both in New West and Surrey.”
While road modifications would be required on both sides of the bridge, she said there's “a lot more constrained area” in New Westminster.
Even though the new crossing will have four lanes, Itagawa said it will accommodate more vehicles than the current Pattullo Bridge and will be a “much more efficient bridge” as far as traffic goes.
“One of the key things of the new bridge design is the lanes are much wider. They're being built to current standard road lanes,” she said. “The lanes on the existing bridge are very narrow. What happens when trucks go over the existing bridge, they straddle both lanes, and that really creates an inefficient traffic flow, essentially putting it down to one lane on each side.”
In addition to providing a more efficient traffic flow, Itagawa said one of the key priorities for the new bridge is a safer crossing – for vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists.
“Number 1, there's pedestrian/cycling multi-use paths on each side of the bridge, with a safety barrier separating the traffic from pedestrians and cyclists. The current bridge just has a small sidewalk that's not even separated from vehicle. So that'll be a huge benefit,” she said. “And then also, obviously, with the wider lanes, and then with the median barrier as well, it will be to minimize that any incidents that were created with from oncoming traffic. So it will be a lot safer.”