Buses and bypasses: Abbotsford and Mission list their transportation priorities

When it comes to the transportation priorities for the Fraser Valley’s local governments, there’s the highway, then there’s everything else.

The Fraser Valley Regional District’s new regional growth strategy lays out exactly where and how its communities will change over the coming years—and it’s not a surprise to see a widened highway with HOV and transit lanes identified as “critical priorities” that take precedence ahead of the region’s “everything else.” (Those new lanes—and park-and-ride facilities and interchanges—are already in the works, even if construction itself is likely to take another decade.)

But the other priorities identified in the document also give a sense of where local politicians are plotting improvements—and where they’re focusing when they’re lobbying the province for more money.

In this story, we’ll tackle eight priority projects in Abbotsford and Mission. Tomorrow, we’ll look at 16 more projects in Chilliwack, Kent, Harrison Hot Springs, and Hope.

A look from above

The Fraser Valley Regional District’s growth strategy gives a solid—if not 100% reliable—indicator of the road projects the region’s politicians and bureaucrats will be pursuing over the coming years. The list of projects was compiled in consultation with local municipalities and their engineers, planners, and politicians. As such, it’s a high-level look at the transformative road projects those decisionmakers hope to get done in the years to come. Some will inevitably involve local politicians lobbying the provincial and federal governments for funding. But many will live or die based on funding decisions made by local cities.

Two notes:

• 1) The Fraser Valley Regional District doesn’t include Langley, so its growth strategy—which reflects the interests of its member municipalities—doesn’t include any Langley-specific projects. However, one Abbotsford priority does involve a key connecting route with the Township, and a Mission-focused project would require construction in Maple Ridge.

• 2) The projects—aside from the highway infrastructure—have been lumped into two categories: “high priorities” and “medium/long-term projects.” High priority projects are generally those that communities are planning—or advocating for—right now. Long-term projects are those that are less urgent or have obvious barriers with no immediate solution.

You can see the FVRD’s map of all its priority projects here.

Abbotsford

Abbotsford has listed two high-priority projects and two longer-term works.

McKee Road connector

A long-planned for, but previously impossible, new east-west connection in Abbotsford will be one of the largest road projects in the city’s history when it’s finally complete.

For decades, the city has envisioned a time when McKee Road could be extended west toward the city centre, flying over Highway 11 and connecting with George Ferguson Way. Subdivisions built just east of Highway 11 30 years ago were laid out to accommodate just such a road, which would allow Sumas Mountain residents to take a single, direct route from their suburban neighbourhoods to Abbotsford’s city centre.

But sitting in the middle of the route was Abbotsford’s last urban homestead: Kathy Cooper’s farm. Cooper lived her entire life on the farm, but died in 2020. As planned, her farm was sold to developers who laid out plans for a new neighbourhood on the site. And the development will finally allow for McKee Road to be extended through the property.

Land has now been set aside for the extension, but two more obstacles are left. The city will have to negotiate a deal and timeline with the province to allow for the construction of that key overpass. And money. The project will be one of the costliest in Abbotsford’s recent history. The city intends to pay for construction with fees from developers—including both those building homes at Cooper’s old farm and further up Sumas Mountain, whose residents will use the new connector to get into town.

The Current asked the city about the state of the project. A spokesperson responded in an email: “The McKee Road widening project is identified within the five-year Capital Plan and is currently within the initial phases of planning and design. The construction timelines of the future McKee Road Extension is contingent on the rate of development in the neighborhood areas through the McKee Neighbourhood Plan along with participation and discussions with the BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure.”

Fraser Highway

Abbotsford hopes to widen Fraser Highway from Mt. Lehman interchange to Aldergrove—which isn’t a surprise, since the city is already in the midst of a long-term project to improve the busy road.

The city aims to eventually widen the heavily used artery to four lanes, but it’s doing so gradually. The first phase of work has seen the addition of centre-left lanes to reduce slow downs at key intersections.

As for the four-lane widening, the city has lobbied the province for funds to help pay for that work. But despite Fraser Highway’s name, the province does not own the road, leaving Abbotsford technically on the hook for maintenance and improvements unless it can sweet-talk the province into helping out. Across the Abbotsford/Langley border, the Township is also planning on widening Fraser Highway through Aldergrove. It hopes to have the work done by 2030.

Maclure Road

On Abbotsford’s long-term priority list is a connector road between Maclure Road and Highway 11.

The two roads are already connected, but only after Maclure swerves north through an industrial area. The city hopes to extend Maclure Road directly east to the Highway 11/Gladys Avenue junction where the highway bypass makes a 90-degree turn up a hill.

The project would require several existing businesses to make way, however. It also needs provincial government co-operation to enable construction of a new four-way Highway 11 junction.

Vedder Way extension

Finally, Abbotsford hopes to extend Vedder Way—the north-south road that currently provides access to Walmart and Home Depot—under a rebuilt Highway 1. This long-term project seems the least likely to ever happen.

It will be highly dependent on the construction of a widened Highway 11 and a design of a new Sumas Way interchange just to the east. But when the province released its preferred design elements last fall, drawings for the new interchange did not include a Vedder Way extension. (Though they did forecast a realignment of nearby King Road.)

Mission (and area)

Four projects in Mission and the surrounding area are listed as high priorities.

Highway 7 widening

Mission wants to see Highway 7 widened between its city centre and Maple Ridge. Although listed as a high priority, it hasn’t generated the same amount of lobbying as other projects on Mission’s list.

Because it’s a highway, any widening would be highly dependent on provincial funding and political priorities. The route is four lanes throughout the City of Mission, with the remaining two-lane stretch in Maple Ridge. Only a small portion is still two lanes. But it’s two lanes for a reason—it’s squished between a railroad and a string of properties on a relatively steep hillside. Widening the highway would be expensive and logistically difficult. And while the project appears on the list of high priority projects, Mission’s council hasn’t made a strong push to fully widen the highway. The province, meanwhile, has focused its efforts on Highway 1.

In other words, it’s unlikely to happen anytime soon.

Highway 7/First Avenue Bypass

For two decades, Mission residents and politicians have called for the creation of a bypass route that would move Highway 7 traffic off First Avenue and out of the city’s downtown core. But all that advocacy hasn’t solved significant infrastructure challenges facing such a project.

Any new bypass route would require expensive construction, given the proximity to local rail lines. In 2015, then-Mission mayor Randy Hawes suggested a bypass that would send trucks south of the existing rail line could cost up to $100 million. That figure has only grown in the last decade.

Mission’s Downtown Business Association wrote a letter in 2021 calling for a bypass via the Murray Street overpass. And in 2022, Mayor Paul Horn said he was told by the province’s transportation minister that the province was cooking up a design for a bypass that would move truck traffic off the road.

But at the moment, the province seems to be focusing on a cheaper, short-term option that will try to route trucks south of the city centre through existing roads. The province is in the midst of hiring contractors to improve the Murray Street intersection, as well as the junction at Glasgow Avenue and Horne Street. Trucks will be asked to take a circuitous route around downtown Mission. The improvements are intended to make that easier and eliminate existing hazards for large loads. But trucks will end up on the Abbotsford-Mission Highway and needing to turn left back onto Highway 7. That will put further pressure on the already very busy Highway 7/11 intersection.

Dewdney Bridge replacement

Of the two-dozen priority projects, this one faces the fewest obstacles. Indeed, construction is already underway on a new $33 million bridge near Dewdney, with completion expected in 2026.

The current bridge over the Nicomen Slough was built in 1958. In describing the current project, the province said it was “nearing the end of its serviceable life.” That’s another way of saying it’s falling apart. The bridge stands on creosote pilings, and in 2015 a contractor noticed a large portion of the bridge was shifting and seemingly collapsing.

You can find details on the new design here. The province says it will provide more clearance for boats, and more room for cyclists and pedestrians. Mostly, though, the goal is to build a bridge that won’t fall into the slough below.

Highway 7 transit

It’s possible that one other project could get finished before the Dewdney Bridge. All it would take is a few buses and a lot of logistical planning.

BC Transit, the Fraser Valley Regional District, and communities north of the Fraser hope to sketch out a plan for a new bus route that would directly link Agassiz and Mission and the communities in between. (An existing bus would provide a further connection to Harrison Hot Springs.) The FVRD has urged BC Transit to plan for the creation of what such a route would look like and who would pay for it. When that’s done, various governments would then need to figure out who would pay the ongoing operating costs.

The project has been eyed for years, but stymied by a lack of provincial funding for BC Transit. Last December, the FVRD told BC Transit that it should start planning for such a work. But even then, the work would require the provincial agency getting necessary funding from its Victoria budget-setters.

In the regional growth strategy, the FVRD has called for North of Fraser transit connections from Mission to both Agassiz and Maple Ridge.

From a ridership point of view, the Maple Ridge route seems even more obviously needed. But it faces a major bureaucratic problem: linking a community serviced by Translink to one where BC Transit runs the local buses.

The lack of co-operation between the two transit agencies is why there is no bus route between Langley City and Abbotsford, and it’s also a major obstacle connecting two closely related communities north of the Fraser.

Meetings

The list of specific projects is just a part of the regional growth strategy’s vision for the future of transportation in the Fraser Valley.

The document includes dozens of actions to support the overarching goal of improving the region’s transportation infrastructure and options. Most actions involve more talking than building, and many involve asking other levels of government to do things.

In such a document, the task of 'improving public transit becomes “Work with BC Transit, TransLink, and other regional partners to establish and expand—as required by growth—a reliable, accessible, affordable, and regionally integrated public transit system that links communities both within and outside the region.”

It’s here also that rail and rapid transportation gets a mention, as the document commits the regional district to “encourage the Province to consider increased and diversified rapid transportation options for the long-term, including the potential for rail transit opportunities.”

Of course, like all the projects, whether anything gets built demands shovels (or vehicles of one sort or another), not words.