Showing posts sorted by date for query Bridge. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query Bridge. Sort by relevance Show all posts

Monday, March 9, 2026

The narrow Pattullo Bridge Replacement

https://www.pattullobridgereplacement.ca/construction/current-works Its a nice 4 lane bottleneck choakpoint. There should have been a provision for a lower deck for bus lanes, HOV lanes and LRT, but that would help to alleviate some transportation congestion.

It wasn't designed with that much future capacity in mind, just like the absurd Canada+Line. The SkyTrain-Canada+Line is still only running 2 car trains. The New stal̕əw̓asəm Bridge is only 2 lanes each way. This is congestive urban planning in BC at its best. Narrow bridges and short trains are some of the best ways to symbolically demonstrate a reluctance to accommodate future growth capacity. 

People aren't suppose to wonder where all the money went over the past several generations, because it seems that not enough funds have gone towards proper big city infrastructure.

 

Repairs on the Ironworkers Bridge

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/ironworkers-memorial-bridge-lane-closures-vancouver 

Unfortunatly, when this bridge was designed, there was no serious consideration to have 2 wide emergency lanes and 2 wide shoulders. Then, the Iron Bridge could have gradually been adapted to accommodate 2 bus lanes and 2 HOV lanes. At the very least, a bus, HOV and commuter train bridge should have been built next to the inadequate Iron Bridge back in the 20th century.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironworkers_Memorial_Second_Narrows_Crossing Opened August 25, 1960  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granville_Street_Bridge Opened February 4, 1954 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0c/View_of_downtown_Vancouver_from_the_Granville_Street_Bridge.JPG/960px-View_of_downtown_Vancouver_from_the_Granville_Street_Bridge.JPG

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Street_Bridge Opened June 29, 1957 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5f/Oak_Street_Bridge.jpg/960px-Oak_Street_Bridge.jpg  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_Street_Bridge Opened January 15, 1974 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Knight_Street_Bridge.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Laing_Bridge Opened 27 August 1975 

https://evelazarus.com/third-crossing-here-we-go-again Somehow, Vancouver just never got around to building a bus and train tunnel or bridge in between the Lion Bridge and the Iron Bridge. Since Skytrain doesn't run 24 hours, there needs to be 24 hour bus lanes. 

https://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/dfhd/page_nhs_eng.aspx?id=11273 Some day, the Lion Bridge could become a nice bus and bike bridge, if a highway tunnel could ever be built under the park and beside the LGB. 

Unfortunately, the Vancouver Mind Virus (VMV) keeps getting in the way of progress. Just look at how short the Canada Line trains are.

Saturday, March 7, 2026

Burrard Street Bridge closes for Sen̓áḵw crane removal

 https://www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/article/burrard-street-bridge-closes-for-senakw-crane-removal 

Several cities have parallel bike bridges, then the city planners don't have to remove traffic lanes. 

https://vancouversun.com/news/vancouver-burrard-street-bridge-temporarily-closure 

Unfortunatly, the Burrard_Bridge (BB) was hit hard by the multigenerational Vancouver Mind Virus (VMV). The Burrard_Bridge was designed to have a lower level for streetcars or tram-trains, but the city never followed through. Fortunately, the VMV was unable to stop Portland and Seattle from reviving some of their streetcar lines.  

The Burrard_Street_Bridge used to have 6 lanes and 2 wide sidewalks. However, since the city has a problem of not building separate bike bridges, 2 potential bus lanes were removed from the Burrard_Bridge. Now, if the city ever wants to have 2 dedicated bus lanes, the BB will only have 1 general lane each way. That's the VMV at work.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burrard_Bridge#History

Thursday, March 5, 2026

Why the Widest Freeway on Earth still Made Traffic Worse in Houston

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMwKgT4ZUvQ It is utterly foolish to not have enough space for a commuter train to run above, or in the middle or underneath the widest highways. 

https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/houstons-15-year-growth-three-charts Simply building wide roads like in Houston, L.A. and Toronto is just as bad as having mostly narrow bridges in Greater Vancouver.  

Whether its 10 lanes or 20 lanes wide, there should always be 2 dedicated bus lanes and 2 HOV lanes. While the highway will get clogged up during the day, at least the buses and trains can still get through quickly. 

The Pattullo+Bridge+replacement is only 2 lanes each way with narrow shoulders. It should have opened with enough space for 2 bus lanes and 2 HOV lanes, but that would go against the congestive urban planning mentality of BC.

The Samuel-De+Champlain+Bridge in Montreal is just as good as similar wide highway and train bridges in Seattle+and+Perth. All were possible, simply because they aren't limited by anything like the Vancouver and BC Mind Virus.

The narrow-minded Vancouver and BC approach is to try to funnel everything into just 2 or 3 lanes each way. Then there just isn't enough space to have 2 bus lanes and 2 HOV lanes. Greater Vancouver has certainly gone in the extreme opposite direction of Houston, L.A. and Toronto...

A wide Greater Houston highway has lots of space, but without 2 bus lanes and 2 HOV lanes, everything gets plugged up. In contrast, Greater Vancouver has most of its bridges and highways so damn narrow, there isn't enough space to accomodate a proper express bus and HOV network. 

This deliberate backwards BC bottleneck-chokepoint planning approach is totally absurd. 

There is no commuter train tunnel near the Lions+Gate+Bridge or even for the Massey+Tunnel+replacement. Thus, they are the best examples of BC choke-point urban planning. Despite having twice the lanes as the inept 3 lane LGB, the newer Iron+Bridge never had any emergency lanes. A bus and HOV bridge was never built next to it. Plus, no commuter train bridge. It's another fine example of BC choke-point, bottleneck planning. 

A north and south Boundary+Road bridge system would provide direct access between the North+ShoreRichmond+and+Delta, but that's what a proper big city would do. Backwards BC has quite a problem with thinking and building big. The 2 car Canada+Line is another example. Don't build it to at least have a 5 car train, just design it to only have 2.5 car trains, someday.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Houston#Transportation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_610_(Texas)#Lane_configurations There is a point when simply adding more lanes won't provide long-term improvement. However, when combined with dedicated bus and HOV lanes, other options become available. Especially, if there is rail rapid transit and commuter rail as well. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/METRORail While not as extentise as DART_rail, it still works like a tram-train. 

Of course longer streetcars or tram-trains are still slow on the actual surface street segments.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trams_in_Melbourne#System_upgrades 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_streetcar_system

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muni_Metro SF

Last week's malfunction of the Second Narrows (rail) Bridge shows how dependent the Prairie economy is on this transportation chokepoint

 https://financialpost.com/opinion/opinion-users-need-more-say-about-vancouvers-rail-bridges 

The Greater Vancouver Region should have had all of its freight rail bridges at least double tracked by now.

https://www.cn.ca/en/stories/20250429-cn-and-port-of-vancouver-collaborating/

There is a subtle KEEP BC SMALL AND BACKWARDS mentality, but sometimes it's right in your face.

https://financialpost.com/opinion/opinion-vancouvers-port-must-up-its-grain-game 

Its as if there is a VMV and the BC Mind Virus. Although no one can actually pinpoint it, the effects of it are quite apparent. 

https://financialpost.com/opinion/nutrien-bypass-port-vancouver-underscores-need-change  

Despite the size of Canada, it has less than 1% of the world's population.

https://www.portvancouver.com/project/second-narrows-dredging-works 

Unfortunatly, by not even keeping up with moderate infrastructure growth demands, Canada keeps falling behind in a world with over 8 billion people. 

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/news/2024/10/20252027-immigration-levels-plan.html 

There should be a way to expand the economy and population, while making things more affordable.

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/mandate/corporate-initiatives/levels/supplementary-immigration-levels-2026-2028.html 

https://thoughtleadership.cibc.com/article/population-growth-projections-are-we-repeating-past-mistakes/

https://www.rbc.com/en/economics/canadian-analysis/featured-analysis/insights/canada-maintains-tight-immigration-policy-despite-permanent-resident-exemptions/ 

Vancouver keeps holding back the scale of bridges, trains and buildings. This is part of a symbolic mentality and agenda to not think like a proper big city.  

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

Burrard Inlet's lift rail bridge stuck, unable to open for large ships to pass through Second Narrows for days

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/second-narrows-rail-bridge-malfunction 

The tunnel should have been built wide enough to eventually accommodate 2 tracks. Either there should have been a provision to build a 2nd fright bridge and tunnel, or simply have designed a double track bridge and tunnel that could easily and regularly be maintained. 

This all symbolically fits in with with the narrow-minded mentality to not build proper big city infrastructure. 

Vancouver council boosts budget for roads, sidewalks by $70M

More than 60 per cent of Vancouver’s arterial roads, local streets considered in fair to very poor condition https://www.biv.com/news/economy-law-politics/not-sexy-but-fundamental-vancouver-council-boosts-budget-for-roads-sidewalks-by-70m-11921125 

The cities roads and streets are so inadequate, but Vancouver isn't allowed to become a proper big city.

The decision to not carve up small Vancouver with freeways between the 1950s and 1970s was a wise and novel idea at the time. However, there wasn't any proper foresight over the past several generations to make sure that the cities mostly narrow bridges didn't become bottleneck-chokepoints. 

By now, every bridge should have had a bus and HOV bridge built next to it. Instead, 2 lanes were removed from the Burrard Bridge, 1 lane from the Cambie Bridge and 2 from the Granville Bridge. 

Conveniently, no bike bridges were ever built next to those bridges. Apparently, what was disguised as a cost saving measure by not building proper bike-bridges, the decision was made to remove traffic lanes from some bridges. This all seems to be part of the bottleneck planning mentality. 

It's amazing how several cities around the world are able to build bike-bridges, simply because they aren't under anything like the backwards Vancouver planning agenda. 

Tuesday, February 24, 2026

Delays out of North Shore continue after truck stalls for hour on Lions Gate Bridge

 https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2026/02/24/stall-on-lions-gate-bridge-causing-massive-delays-out-of-north-shore/ 

The LGB bottleneck is indicative of how some people don't want Vancouver to become a properly planned functioning big city.

https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/comments/1mehud6/theres_a_single_car_stopped_in_the_only/

Unfortunatly, Vancouver still isn't allowed to function like a real proper big city. For several decades, so many key people, especially urban planners don't want to have a wider structural crossing to at least match what Prince George and Kamloops have. Or, to match what Kelowna has and especially don't want to have what Ft. McMurray has. 

Indeed, most proper major cities by now would have had a 6-8 lane tunnel right under the park and close to the LGB. Georgia Street is already 7 lanes wide in the first few bloks closest to the park, so the potential for a 7-8 lane tunnel should be possible.

An 8 lane tunnel would be best in that the 3 & 4 lane counterflow on Georgia could easily feed into an 8 lane tunnel. Then once in the tunnel there world be 3 standard lanes each way, plus a bus lane each way. 

A commuter train tunnel or an extension of the YVR-Canada Line should also run close to where the LGB is. Unfortunatly, some key people for several decades don't seem to want or understand the benefits of having a train connecting YVR with both of the regional bc-ferries terminals. That's because it could actually help to relieve transportation congestion. https://www.bcferries.com/current-conditions/TSA-SWB

It's always amazing to see what other cities around the world can do, simply because they aren't trapped within the backwards Vancouver mindset or don't have a backwater BC mentality to thwart them. 

https://www.th.gov.bc.ca/atis/lgcws/index.html 

This has to be one of the worlds best examples of bottleneck-chokepoint planning around. 

https://www.translink.ca/schedules-and-maps/skytrain A rail rapid transit connection to both ferry terminals and YVR would be a huge improvement, but it's still not likely in the foreseeable future.

Vancouver port applies to dredge Burrard Inlet this year to fuel oil exports

 https://www.biv.com/news/transportation/vancouver-port-applies-to-dredge-burrard-inlet-this-year-to-fuel-oil-exports-11915974  

The Second Narrows Crossing Area

https://www.vmcdn.ca/f/files/glaciermedia/images/climate-enviro-solutions/oceans/proposed-burrard-inlet-dredging.jpg;w=960 A commuter rail, rapid bus and HOV bridge was never built next to the Iron Bridge, which doesn't even have any emergency lanes. The freight train bridge and tunnel east of it, wasn't designed to eventually accomodate 2 tracks. Taking a narrower bridge and tunnel approach symbolically fits right in with the narrow-minded mentality that is BC. 

https://www.bchydro.com/energy-in-bc/projects/second-narrows-crossing-project.html

Saturday, February 21, 2026

The Pattullo Bridge Replacement

 https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2026TT0025-000178 Its only 2 lanes each way for the foreseeable future. No bus lanes and no HOV lanes, it's just another classic BC funnel for congestion.

Wednesday, February 4, 2026

North Shore of Greater Vancouver

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Shore_(Greater_Vancouver)

Is North Vancouver the most livable city in Canada? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX89qkSRBvg 

https://www.vancouversnorthshore.com 

Unfortunatly, there still isn't a commuter train from the airport to the H Bay ferry terminal. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Shore_(Greater_Vancouver)#Access 

There isn't even a train tunnel or a bus bridge between Downtown_Vancouver and the North Shore. Inept regional planning has been very slow to build rapid rail transit, or even a proper rapid bus bridge over the Inlet. An inadequate 3 lane Lion Bridge is so narrow that some people have living rooms or swimming pools wider than it. The 6 lane Iron Bridge that's so narrow, there isn't enough room for emergency lanes and no space for HOV lanes. Any attempt of a rapid bus will still have to be funneled into the inadequate single deck crossing. 

Saturday, January 31, 2026

Why Greater Toronto Has Several Skylines

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI9WJa9Q8dA 

Of course many large urban areas around the world have more than 1 or 2 skylines or tower clusters. 

For the longest time, no building in Vancouver or BC, was allowed to be as tall as the 1930s CIBC tower, which is now a stump.

https://www.blogto.com/city/2017/05/toronto-lost-observation-deck-commerce-court-north/

https://www.torontojourney416.com/canadian-bank-of-commerce-building/ 

https://www.25king.ca/the-history 

It wasn't until the early 1970s when stumpy, Vancouver allowed a building to be taller than the L.A. City Hall, or the Smith Tower in Seattle. 

The 1930s CIBC tower, the L.A. City Hall and the Smith Tower, would still be prominent towers in Vancouver, but stumps in their own cities. 

Despite Vancouver being divided by an inlet and a river, the city wasn't able to build a huge wall along Boundary Road. Thus, the KEEP THEM OUT agenda was a little thwarted. The various White city councils tried to do the next best thing. That was to symbolically impose various restrictions as a reluctance to think, plan and build on a BIG city scale. The time especially from 1960 to 2000 had predominantly White City Hall and its councils continually impose several overlapping restrictions. 

Since Vancouver can't control immigration or the movements of non-white people, keeping things small and backwards, means that less people will move there than to Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Edmonton. However, with a mild winter climate, more and more people want to move to backwards BC, especially small-minded Vancouver and provincial Victoria. 

In spite of immigration and Multiculturalism, Vancouver was to perpetually promote its small scale agenda. 

While the first Skytrain line can finally run 5 car trains, the stations weren't designed to become long enough to eventually accomodate 9 car trains like the big city Montreal Metro has. 

The 2nd and 3rd Skytrain lines are still only running 2 car joke trains. Running 8-10 car trains is what a proper big city would do, but not backwards Vancouver. 

Narrow bridges provides strong symbolism of the cities narrow-mindedness. When bridges are too narrow, its difficult to have a proper express or rapid bus system. The reluctance to build parallel bus and HOV bridges helps to maintain the congestive planning approach that is vancouver and the Greater Region. 

Vancouver's refusal to build parallel bike bridges has meant that 2 lanes were removed from the Burrard Bridge, 1 lane from the Cambie Bridge and 2 lanes from the Granville Bridge. 

Keeping buildings symbolically short when compared to what scenic Sydney, Auckland, SF and Seattle allow, also helps to maintain Vancouver's reluctance to enter the big and tall urban scale. In fact, the scenic setting that Vancouver is in has been used as the main excuse to continually scale the city down. Yet, several scenic cities around the world are either able to have wider bridges, wider roads, longer trains or taller buildings. 

The world is mostly composed of non-white people. Canada has less than 1% of the world's population and stubborn Vancouver symbolically remains as a small provincial backwater on the Pacific Rim. 

https://centralparktower.com.au Unlike Perth, Vancouver forbids 50 story office towers and Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne size residential towers. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/108_St_Georges_Terrace In fact, no office building in Vancouver has been permitted to have a 40th floor. However, since Burnaby and Surrey aren't under the restrictive controls of Vancouver, they will eventually allow office towers over 40 stories. 

Despite Australia having less people than Canada, Perth is allowed to have taller buildings, wider bridges and longer trains than Vancouver. Taller buildings, wider bridges and longer trains are even less likely in Halifax than whats in Brisbane or Queensland.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q1_(building) To see buildings on a similar scale of what Brisbane allows, one has to get to Greater Toronto. Brisbane is allowed to have some buildings that would even be impressive in Melbourne and Sydney. 

While Montreal is allowed to have taller buildings than Vancouver, Montreal isn't allowed to have Sydney size towers. Especially not on the scale of what Melbourne and Toronto permit. 

Friday, January 30, 2026

The 5 Projects That Will Shape Portland's Future

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o81t9wpYkl0 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Bridge Only 3 lanes each way. 

https://www.oregon.gov/odot/projects/pages/project-details.aspx?project=21570

https://www.opb.org/article/2025/09/22/interstate-five-i-5-bridge-replacement-costs-rise/

https://www.interstatebridge.org/about-folder/understanding-the-interstate-bridge-replacement-program 

https://www.opb.org/article/2026/01/16/i-5-interstate-bridge-washington-oregon/ 

https://bikeportland.org/2025/10/30/no-vote-an-ominous-first-for-interstate-bridge-project-397823

Major upgrades for Queensborough Bridge in NW

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/queensborough-bridge-upgrades-new-westminster-richmond 

Another classic BC bottleneck-chokepoint. This bridge is so narrow, because there aren't any emergency lanes, let alone any bus & HOV lanes. The narrow and inadequate Queensborough+Bridge just wasn't designed for a properly growing seaport region. A twin or duplicate bridge should have been built immediately east of the first bridge, decades ago. A parallel 4 lane bridge would allow for 3 lanes on each bridge, plus a 4th lane for buses. However, that would go against the regional congestive planning agenda.

Thursday, January 22, 2026

Westham Island Bridge remains closed to vehicles

 https://www.delta-optimist.com/local-news/barge-secured-to-help-transfer-goods-as-westham-island-bridge-remains-closed-to-vehicles-11778788 

The Westham+Island+Bridge has become another 21st century joke. A new and higher bridge should have 1 wide traffic lane each way, plus 2 separated bike and foot paths. This would not only allow for safer bike crossings, but easier emergency and general vehicle access. 

Barnston+Island doesn't even have a bridge. The Barnston+Island+Ferry should be replace with a bridge. Such a bridge should also have 1 wide traffic lane each way, plus 2 separated bike and foot paths. 

With a proper bridge crossing Barnston_Island as well as Westham_Island would be so much easier for people to bike around in the spring & summer. Plus, a proper bridge would be more efficient for business.

https://metrovancouver.org/services/regional-parks/park/barnston-island-regional-park  


https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Westham+Island

Wednesday, January 21, 2026

Overnight closure on Highway 1 planned in North Vancouver for pedestrian and cycling bridge

 https://www.nsnews.com/local-news/overnight-closure-on-highway-1-planned-in-north-vancouver-next-month-11773135 

While every new bike bridge is another victory in regional mobility, Burrard_Inlet is so lacking with a bus and train tunnel and bridge. Unfortunatly, there are still enough people who prefer to have perpetual traffic congestion and chaos. 

Perth, WA, Australia

 https://www.mainroads.wa.gov.au/travel-information/driving-in-wa/driving-in-perth 

https://www.mainroads.wa.gov.au/technical-commercial/smartfreeways While WA take a spart aproach, backwards BC still takes a dumb approach to things.

https://www.mainroads.wa.gov.au/projects-initiatives/all-projects/metropolitan/smartfreeways/ 4 lanes each way with 2 track in the middle. You won't find that in Vancouver or anywhere in backwards BC. 

https://www.mainroads.wa.gov.au/projects-initiatives/all-projects/metropolitan/canning-bridge-bus-interchange 

https://www.mainroads.wa.gov.au/technical-commercial/smartfreeways/how-to-use-a-smfy/making-way-for-emergency-vehicles

https://www.mainroads.wa.gov.au/projects-initiatives/all-projects/metropolitan In contrast, the Metro Vancouver Region is a joke!  

"Perth is Australia’s fourth biggest city, with a population of 2.3 million. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhS-fiJ14GU Perhaps surprisingly, Perth has an expansive suburban railway network. 8 lines, 85 stations and 270 km of track – it’s a large system for a relatively small city." 


https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Perth