The Government of Canada has announced a $55.8 million investment for four projects led by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority that will help local businesses compete by moving local goods to market, and by making improvements to port infrastructure.
“Investing in the Port of Vancouver’s infrastructure will benefit not only the local and Canadian economy but also provide Canadian exporters with new opportunities to reach the global market,” said Ron McKinnon, Member of Parliament for Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam. “This investment will also have a real impact for those who live and commute in the Tri-Cities area as they will be tangible improvements in traffic flow and congestion.”
These projects include the following:
- Addition of nearly five kilometres of track at the Canadian Pacific Facility, reconstruction of Harris Road to provide four lanes that will travel beneath the existing Canadian Pacific railway, and construction of a new two-lane overpass to replace the crossing at Kennedy Road in Pitt Meadows;
- Upgrade of the existing Westwood Street and Kingsway Avenue intersections at the railway corridor to separate road traffic from rail traffic on the municipal boundary between the Cities of Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam;
- Design work to raise Pitt River Road and Colony Farm Road to create overpasses of the existing rail corridor (and Lougheed Road) that will allow for a new five kilometre-long section of track that will pass beneath these two crossings permitting trains to travel in both directions along the Canadian Pacific in the City of Coquitlam; and
- Improvements at the existing Canadian Pacific railway overpass at Mountain Highway that include lowering the roadway to provide additional clearance for oversized cargo travelling under the railway bridge in North Vancouver.
These projects are expected to have significant economic and employment benefits by creating an estimated 550 jobs during construction.
The Port of Vancouver is a critical link to Asia, most notably with China, South Korea, and Japan. The United States is also among its principal trading links. The Port is the third largest port in North America in terms of volume and the largest port in Canada, almost four times larger than Canada’s second busiest port (Montréal) with 142 million tonnes of cargo handled in 2017 (2.7 million tonnes per week).