Bikes, buses, trucks and transit: New details on highway widening in the Fraser Valley

Bike lanes, a new park-and-ride facility, new interchanges, and, in some places, five lanes of traffic in each direction.

We know a lot more about what Highway 1 will look like after it is widened in the Fraser Valley thanks to a highly detailed document released by the province this week.

After years of uncertainty, we now have much more information about what the upcoming highway expansion will mean for drivers, truckers, bus riders, cyclists—and even Chilliwack residents.

Although the widening of Highway 1 to Abbotsford has been planned and promised for years now, few details had been provided about what, exactly, the major transportation artery would look like.

The public had been told that the project would likely involve a high-occupancy vehicle/electric vehicle lane. But beyond that, the province had only released broad statements suggesting the project would be aimed at moving people faster, improving safety, smoothing the way for truck traffic, and promoting pedestrian, cycling and transit uses.

Now we know how the province’s engineers hope to meet all those goals. And there is also confirmation that the highway project has been extended all the way to Chilliwack, although details on that stage are still relatively limited and unlikely to materialize soon.

Here’s what we know. You can view the document—and all the images below in larger scale—here.

Drivers

The widening of Highway 1 will include adding several lanes designated for specific types of vehicles. But while there will be no new lanes specifically targeting single-occupant gas-fueled private vehicles, the intention is that adding space for other vehicles will take pressure off the main travel lanes.

At the same time, the new lanes are designed to allow carpoolers, electric-vehicle drivers, and transit users to bypass traffic snarls that occur along the highway, incentivizing more people to choose those means of travel.

A new HOV lane will be added that will run all the way from the Highway 11 (Sumas Way) interchange to 264 Street, where it will connect with those that run into Vancouver. Like those elsewhere in the region, electric vehicle users will also be able to use them.

Truckers

The number of commercial trucks using Highway 1 has dramatically increased in the last decade and been a large reason why the route is increasingly congested. Although the number of cars using the highway has roughly held steady, commercial vehicle traffic has risen significantly and is forecast to increase by around 30% over the next decade.

Truck-climbing lanes (basically additional slow lanes that anyone can use but are specifically designed to alleviate truck-caused congestion) will be added in two main spots:

Westbound starting just past the Peardonville interchange and continuing to Bradner Road, joining up with an existing lane past the Mt. Lehman interchange.

Eastbound from Bradner Road to the Mt. Lehman Road interchange.

The Bradner rest area is also being reconfigured, with around 30 new truck parking stalls slated to be added. A new truck parking area will also be built at the 264 Street interchange.

Bus riders

The Fraser Valley Express—which now runs between Chilliwack and the Lougheed Skytrain Station—has been a hit with regional riders, regularly exceeding expectations with buses often packed to the gills.

To encourage more transit usage, the province plans to create “bus-on-shoulder” lanes all the way from the Highway 11 (Sumas Way) interchange to 264 Street. As the name suggests, bus-on-shoulder lanes are dedicated lanes for buses.

In many countries where they are used, buses only use such lanes when traffic on standard travel or HOV lanes is clogged. The buses, then, are permitted to travel on the shoulder to bypass traffic jams.

But different jurisdictions use such lanes in different ways. BC is rolling out such lanes in a variety of locations. Its description of a bus-on-shoulder lane for a project on Highway 99 suggests they will be used on a regular basis: “Once completed, buses will travel in their own area of the road and avoid traffic congestion from Ladner Trunk Road all the way to Highway 17A.”

There’s another key addition for transit users: a new bus stop interchange at 264 Street that will allow for workers at the Gloucester Industrial Park to hop a highway-bound bus. It will also include around 180 park-and-ride stalls for nearby residents to use.

Cyclists and pedestrians

While much of the project involves expanding that which already exists, there’s one brand new addition coming with the widening: the creation of a new multi-use biking and cycling pathway all the way along the highway’s north side, from 264 Street to Mt. Lehman Road.

At Mt. Lehman, the path will connect with other Abbotsford pedestrian and cycling routes (though cycling connections to that part of town remain limited in Abbotsford). In Langley, beyond 264 Street, the path will connect with one already in the works that will take riders, runners, or walkers all the way to 216 Street.

The 10km-long pathway will cut the biking distance from Western Abbotsford to the Gloucester Industrial Park by nearly three kilometres (and a significant amount of danger).

Abbotsford interchanges

The plan forecasts some major changes to Abbotsford-area overpasses and underpasses that will affect in-town drivers. And unlike the widening project, which will be built with provincial funds, the interchanges projects are likely to stretch the pockets of taxpayers, with local governments often expected to pick up a large portion of the bill for such infrastructure.

Mt. Lehman Road

The Mt. Lehman interchange was built just 16 years ago but is already undersized. The overpass structure will be widened from three to five lanes. A multi-use path will also be added.

Peardonville Road

Just to the east, the Peardonville overpass will be raised to reduce the chances that trucks on the highway will hit it. It will also be doubled in size to four lanes of traffic. New bike lanes and sidewalks will be added in each direction (currently there is only a sidewalk on one side of the road). A sidewalk will also be built along nearby Livingstone Avenue.

Clearbrook Road

The Clearbrook Road overpass will see protected bike lanes added in each direction, along with a new sidewalk. The document says “interchange structures” will be “reallocated” suggesting that at least one lane currently used by motor vehicles will be removed to provide space for the lanes. The Current has asked both the City of Abbotsford and the province if that is the case. An Abbotsford spokesperson said they weren’t aware of plans to remove traffic lanes, though directed further comments to the province.

McCallum Road

Similarly, the province is planning to create multi-use paths on either side of the McCallum Road overpass, again thanks to “reallocated space.” There are no current bike lanes on the interchange.

A new path will be created on the south side of the highway between McCallum Road and nearby Salton Road, where a cycling and pedestrian bridge was installed just a handful of years ago.

Sumas Way/Highway 11

Unsurprisingly, the aging and crash-prone Highway 11/Sumas Way interchange will see the most significant changes and improvements.

The province has designed what is called a “diverging diamond interchange” that will eliminate left turns at the intersection just south of the overpass. The design will see traffic beneath the overpass actually travel on the left-side of opposing vehicles, along with a host of new traffic signals. There will also be bike lanes and a multi-use pathway built beneath the new overpass.

The province says such interchange designs can reduce collisions causing injuries by as much as 70%.

Sumas Prairie and Chilliwack

Perhaps the biggest news is the fact that the highway project has been expanded to eventually include improvements all the way to Chilliwack.

The government had initially promised to widen Highway 1 all the way to Whatcom Road but not beyond it, to the consternation of Chilliwack residents and politicians.

But the highway’s susceptibility to flooding, as shown by the 2021 disaster, appears to have changed the calculations. That stretch of highway was closed for more than a week, after waters inundated Sumas Prairie. Eighteen months ago, The Current suggested that raising the Sumas dike and other flood-mitigation improvements could also spur changes on Highway 1.

Now, the government has confirmed it is overhauling its plans for the highway on Sumas Prairie.

“In response to the impact of the atmospheric river, it was clear that the program needed to be re-imagined,” the new highway widening document says.

The planning document released this week—as part of a new push seeking community feedback and engagement—includes detailed plans for what is being described as Phase 3 of highway widening (the two previous phases included widening work in Surrey and Langley). But the section of prairie-floor highway between Highway 11/Sumas Way and Whatcom Road has now been excluded from that phase and will be part of a new fourth phase that will extend across the prairie into Chilliwack, the document notes.

The details of that work are still unknown and will be hashed out in the coming years. The province says it will run parallel to, and be compatible with, flood mitigation improvements.

The atmospheric river demonstrated that the Sumas River highway crossing is a major weak point in the valley’s flood defences. The bridge provided a route for water to cross a dike separating the western valley and the former bottom of Sumas Lake, and a tiger dam was hastily installed on the highway in advance of a second wave of storms. That dam required closing the highway for several days.

Transportation Minister Rob Fleming told The Current last year that the province was considering raising Highway 1 to address that and other transportation vulnerabilities. A rebuilt highway seems likely to feature elements and additions similar to those on the new segments to the west.

It also seems likely to at least include the replacement of the Vedder Canal bridge, a choke-point crossing with no bike lanes or shoulders and a penchant for serious crashes.

Timing

The province previously declared that Highway 1 will be widened to Whatcom Road by 2026.

That timeline was always ambitious and clearly won’t be met for work on Sumas Prairie east of Highway 11 and Sumas Way. And with only a portion of construction work set to begin next year, it seems unlikely that the 2026 deadline will be met for other parts of the project.

Advance work might begin this year, with preloading of soil, removal of dirt from the median, tree-clearing, and upgrades to the Bradner Road rest area.

The province says design work will be completed next year. Construction on Phase 3A—the segment of highway from 264 Street up to, and including, the Mt. Lehman Road interchange—is also forecast to begin that year. But preloading material will have to remain in place for up to two years in some areas, delaying the onset of full-on construction.

As for Phase 3B, the stretch of highway through most of Abbotsford, the province hasn’t even set a start date for construction. The document says work “will start at a later date in order to balance the need for improvements with minimizing construction impacts along the Fraser Valley Highway 1 Corridor.”

The fourth phase of construction, on Sumas Prairie, will inevitably take even longer to begin.

Feedback

The province is now soliciting comments from the public on the proposed designs, which are subject to change. Information can be found online here.

The public can email comments to [email protected].