Thursday - Nov. 28, 2024 - Old Yale Road to get $10M upgrade

⛅ High 6C

Good morning!

American culture is like a spreading ooze, threatening to engulf any distinct traditions in a slurry of Americana. As a Canadian who likes our colourful money, toques, and poutine, I am glad we have resisted some US encroachment. Today, for example, it is American Thanksgiving down south, but still Generic Thursday™ up here in Canada.

Tomorrow is another expanding American phenomenon. I have made my peace with it, however, especially since it might mean some savings for a few of you subscribers.

Black Friday is one of the busiest shopping days of the year in the United States. The name was coined in the 1960s by Philadelphia police officers who had to beat back the chaos of suburban tourists beginning their holiday shopping. It evolved to be a day of significant sales that has spread across North America, and prompted a slew of other spending days (like Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday).

Tomorrow, FVC is taking part in the American Black Friday tradition by offering a deal on paid subscriptions to the Fraser Valley Current—20% off our usual price. FVC Insiders get tons of extra perks like our Weekend Edition newsletter, weekly events stories, full access to our archive of past stories, and the warm, fuzzy feeling of supporting local journalism.

– Grace

Traffic & Weather

🌤 Local forecast: Langley | Chilliwack | Abbotsford | Hope (We have had to temporarily change our forecast links to the Weather Network due to a technical error.)

🚘 Driving today? Check the current traffic situation via Google, and find DriveBC’s latest updates.

🛣 Click here for links to road cameras across the Fraser Valley, including those for the Coquihalla, Highway 7, Hope-Princeton, Fraser Canyon, and Highway 1 in Langley and Abbotsford.

NEWS

Your thoughts on rail safety

Every community in the Fraser Valley is affected by railways.

The whistles from the trains punctuate the air; the rails snake throughout the valley. And each year, an average of three people are killed by passing trains.

We wrote in detail about the deaths that have occurred in the Fraser Valley over the last 40 years, and explored what experts say can be done to reduce fatalities on a particularly deadly section of track in Chilliwack. But we also wanted to know what FVC readers felt could be done to improve rail safety in the valley.

A majority of respondents said they had not been affected by a rail safety issue in their community. But they still offered their thoughts on what could be done to make the Fraser Valley more safe.

• Today, take a look at what fellow readers had to say about rail safety in the Fraser Valley.

Related

Need to Know

🚓 A Langley fentanyl ‘super lab’ was dismantled by the Burnaby RCMP after a six month investigation [Langley Advance Times]

🚧 Highway 7 near Hope has finally reopened after a rockslide closed the road nearly two weeks ago [Hope Standard]

🎬 A nine-year-old Mission actor made his debut in the Hallmark movie Christmas with the Singhs [Mission City Record]

⚖ BC is looking to seize an Abbotsford home that it says is linked to drug trafficking [Abbotsford News]

❔ The Waceya Métis Society says they are ‘disappointed’ Liberal candidate Madison Fleischer couldn’t provide evidence of her claimed Métis heritage; Fleischer is running in the upcoming Cloverdale-Langley City byelection [Cloverdale Reporter]

🚛 Abbotsford is looking at five potential solutions for overnight commercial truck parking [Abbotsford News]

🚔 Chilliwack RCMP are searching for a wanted violent offender [Chilliwack Progress]

📪 Negotiations have broken down between Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers; Canada’s labour minister says the mediator will return once both sides can begin ‘productive bargaining’ [CBC]

📸 CURRENT CAM: Congratulations to Maryjane Sexton, who was the first person to correctly identify this week’s Current Cam as Pacific Institution in Abbotsford.

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The Agenda

One of the oldest roads in the valley to get nearly $10 million upgrade

A section of Old Yale Road in Langley will be getting an upgrade, after more than a decade of discussion on how to best preserve the historic route.

Old Yale Road was first established in the 1870s, getting a layer of gravel in 1897 and concrete upgrades in 1922. Today, the concrete sections of road between Glover Road and 216 Street are in extremely poor condition, with many residents complaining about the road surface.

The Township of Langley had been considering updates to that section of Old Yale Road since 2010; just last year, council voted to get things rolling by letting residents offer input on three different plans. Overall, residents were in favour of a combined approach to upgrades: resurfacing the concrete and asphalt sections of road and adding heritage interpretation, sidewalks, streetlights, and traffic calming measures. Construction will also include updating the area’s watermains and sanitary lift station.

The final elements of the design process are currently underway—staff are just waiting for reviews from places like BC Hydro—and the project will be put to tender in December.

Staff are setting aside $9.99 million dollars to redo the road, and will be submitting an application for an additional $20,000 grant from the province’s Vision Zero Road Safety program.

If all goes to plan, construction will begin in the new year, with the road expected to be complete by the end of November 2025.

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🗓 Things to do this week/end

✉ Santa letter: The Abbotsford Community Library invites kids to write a special letter to Santa Claus on Saturday between 11:30am and 1pm. Paper, pencils, crayons, stickers, and seasonal cheer provided. Details online.

🎼 Swiftie bingo: Get geared up for the Taylor Swift Eras Tour by playing Taylor Swift bingo at Langley's Townhall restaurant on Sunday. Test your knowledge and sing along to her best music. Details online.

📜 Archives tour: The Chilliwack Archives hosts its next free archives tour on Friday at 3pm. Details online.

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Catch up

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