Fraser Valley highway widening construction will last into the 2030s, province confirms

The provincial government has finally conceded that even the first stage of widening Highway 1 to Abbotsford will take years longer than promised.

The province issued a press release Tuesday declaring that work had begun to clear the median between 264 Street in Langley and Mt. Lehman Road in Abbotsford. And included in the release was a new completion date for the stretch of highway: 2029.

There is still no official date for the completion of work further east, where the province says construction will be further delayed in order to minimize traffic disruptions.

The province had originally promised to widen Highway 1 to Abbotsford by 2026.

But in August, Dan Coulter, the Chilliwack MLA who is also the Minister of State for Transportation and Infrastructure, told The Current that work through to Sumas Way won’t be completed until the mid-2030s. The declaration triggered a follow-up declaration from ministry staff that Coulter “misspoke” and that a timeline hadn’t been set.

The 2029 completion date revealed Tuesday suggests Coulter may have not been far off the mark.

That timeline applies to the Phase 3A stretch of the ongoing highway widening project. The province says work to clear the median on the Phase 3B stretch between Mt. Lehman Road and Sumas Way could begin next year. But the ministry has also said that in order to reduce the scale of traffic disruptions, actual construction on Phase 3B will wait until the bulk of 3A work is completed.

The Phase 3B work includes an incredibly complex interchange—at Sumas Way/Highway 11—along with additional work at the McCallum and Clearbrook junctions. That will inevitably force construction to stretch well into the 2030s.

The province has blamed the atmospheric river for the delays, though flooding from 2021 didn’t impact any portion of the highway west of the Sumas Way interchange.

Subsequent widening work across Sumas Prairie, between the Highway 11 interchange and No. 3 road in western Chilliwack, is being re-imagined in the wake of the 2021 flood. The province says it will spend $30 million on an “integrated planning study.”

Billion-dollar project

The province has also revealed the budget for the next stage of work.

It says widening the highway between 264 Street and Mt. Lehman Road is expected to cost $2.3 billion.

The largest single project in the stretch of road will be the rebuilding of the 264 Street interchange. Construction on that junction is expected to begin next year.

Elsewhere, the new highway is expected to include dedicated bus lanes, an HOV lane, and cycling and a pedestrian path. You can see those details here.