South Fraser Perimeter Road - First Impressions
 

The first phase of the $1.26 billion controversial South Fraser Perimeter Road — renamed Highway 17 — opens this morning, offering truckers and other drivers a “free-flowing” four-lane highway south of the Fraser River.

Transportation officials on Friday showed off the new 10-kilometre eastern section, between Highway 1 at 176th Street to 136th Street in Surrey, touting it as a free alternative for those who don’t want to pay tolls on the new Port Mann Bridge. The bridge officially opened today, with eight lanes now accessible. The remaining two lanes will be opened after the old bridge is demolished.



Read more: First 10 kilometres of new Highway 17 opens Dec. 1


I personally liked the road and feel that its been long over due, I am confused as to why they only made it 2 lanes each way....2 lane highways have become a thing of the past in Metro-Vancouver due to its rapid growth...and sooner or later they will have to widen it anyway..why not just do it now:S. None the Less, Although I took the drive during the rain on Sat night, its a nice route that runs parallel to the river and alongside the docks. One thing that did disturb me...and I REALLY HOPE this is just because it is still under construction...is that there is no exit for the Port Mann Bridge on it...even though it passes directly underneath it...If a driver wishes to head onto HWY Westbound they must take the 176th interchange and go back on themselves. I thought rather than having to drive towards Guildford and taking hwy 1 westbound, I would be able to hop on SFPR and take the bridge from there...but like I said this may only be because it has not been fully completed yet. Your thoughts?

doubt they would ever put that exit due to where all the houses are there, only way is up through the old dump

Just more traffic to muck up the already shitty puttalo bridge, more hell since truckers just drive in the middle of lanes.

i say ban the trucks from bridges from 6am to 9am....that will ease congestion...these trucks in patullo start from the left lane then move right and sometimes take up both lanes...

The really wide trucks that drive on both lanes are somewhat acceptable, since I'd rather drive behind one then beside one to have it fuck me because the driver is inexperienced.

What I CANNOT stand on the Patullo bridge are fucktards who are too scared to pass any remotely large vehicle in the next lane, yet still choose to drive directly in its blind spot, just fucking traffic flow and speed on the bridge.

my understanding is this new highway is to get mainly truck traffic from the ferry and deltaport areas EAST out of town and north via the golden ears and get traffic off local municipal roads. it is not ment to be a bypass to the #1 to the patullo and those who are complaining about that need to grasp the idea that the patullo is not a 'free alternative' to the port mann. the port mann is the east west bridge. and in the next 10 years you're going to have to pay to cross the new putello bridge anyway.

and there is no direct offramp to go west on the #1 because traffic isnt ment to go west there.

Gateway Freeways | Wilderness Committee

fucking hippies

i appload the SFPR, get big, dangerous trucks off roads, ease flow for 'regular' road users, make it easier for big trucks by giving them their own route - win-win.

the only losers here are hippies... and tax payers, but when have tax payers ever not been the loser?!

now, where's the 'real' highway 99 - time to flatten oak street and make that into an actual motorway

long live the car! (i think i'm in the minority of people who actually love cars on this site and think they have a place in my daily life, and in my daily journeys)

SFPR was never meant to have ANY connection to the Port Mann.

If you look at the full project, you can see the route goes from Oak St. (72nd St./Hwy99) and follows the river connecting it to Alex Fraser but going PAST Patullo straight to Hwy1 @ 176 St.

IIRC the entire project is outlined to get truck traffic out of the way and get them faster to their destinations. Sure making it only 2 lanes each way seems abit in the past, but for truckers that's all they need.

I've been using this road for a while, getting on at 176 and taking it to the Bridge. It's fun on the motorcycle, only thing that sucks is being next to the water there are lots of bugs. When I was using it in the summer most of the time I'd see maybe one or two other vehicles, it's like a huge 4 lane empty road.

I use it also and its a definite money maker for speed traps because nobody knows it exists and pretty straight.
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lol, I "discovered" this route back in the summer when I was trying to find an alternate route to avoid paying the toll on Port Mann.

I don't think the route was fully shown on Google Maps yet.
But it was such a nice long stretch of highway.

i know its an old post but...

I like the idea of regulating truck traffic as i understand they do that in Paris (trucks are only allowed at night) and the UK iirc has something similar and are now debating whether to increase restrictions on truck traffic

I wouldn't mind seeing large truck traffic regulated to evenings-early am and delivery vans for the day if companies can't cope with the restrictions

I will not speak to the UK restrictions, but..

Paris is not a port city. Vancouver is a port city. The truck traffic this fact creates completely changes the scenarios. It is not a viable option to restrict truck traffic to late pm-early am in Vancouver. The infrastructure in Vancouver is insufficient and the only solution is expansion and upgrades. It is an unavoidable necessity.

first thing that came into my mind

I thought the South Fraser Perimeter was built for truck traffic - to reduce/divert truck traffic from municipal roads.

To limit them when the road was designed for them in the first place would be......... nuff said.

Also designed to get them to and from Tsawassen ferry terminal more efficiently, which is why it is part of Highway 17, also known as the Patricia Bay highway on Vancouver Island, connecting Victoria to the Swartz Bay ferry terminal.

I think the limited-hours suggestion was aimed toward bridges, particularly the Patullo, where one truck splitting lanes at 20km/h all the way across can seriously fuck up rush hour...

Wonder how much time this would have saved me when I picked up a friend from the Tsawwassen ferry terminal on our way to a stag out in Mission.. Looking forward to checking this out.

It's nice when I have to get out to Langley, takes me like 15 mins from delta now to 200th ave
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I got so confused when I used it the first time, but it is quite efficient.

With London, under their current scheme, traffic is restricted during nights/weekends as they want to fight noise pollution but it's currently being argued that they should flip it to the day due to an increased number of cyclists dying because truckers can't see them.

I'm all for expansion and upgrades I think the government is really ignoring the scope of the problem and are only offering minimal solutions however I still believe restrictions coupled with better scheduling, what have you, can allow our traffic to be more efficient; increased rail/barge traffic to ship containers into inland cities maybe? might spread the trucks out more coupled with time restrictions

something greater should be done anyway i'm all for more roads/bridges but instead of tolls to pay for them the government should issue bonds

A service sending containers by rail, let's say, from Roberts Bank to Maple Ridge, would quadruple the cost of transporting containers in the Lower Mainland. Obviously, not an option.

A service sending containers by rail, let's say, from Roberts Bank to Edmonton, would double the cost of transporting containers and considerably detriment warehouses in the Lower Mainland. Again, not an option.

In fact, a service sending a container by rail is not cost-effective compared to a warehouse cross-docking and arranging truck transport unless the destination is further east than Winnipeg.

Annacis Island, Port Kells, and Bridgeview - stating only a select group of the Lower Mainland's industrial areas - are dependent on 24/7 truck transport to operate the aforementioned cross-docking and arranging of truck truck transport. And, such areas support our economy through creating relatively well-paying entry level jobs.

To restrict truck traffic past the current levels - such as truck routes - is not an option. If Vancouver's economy is ever like London or Paris' economies, it might open up as an option.

Looks like a great place for late night drags... (0-to-speedlimit of course)


and by drags I mean dressing up in women's clothing and not racing because that would be highly illegal and unsafe