Gateway Program

10:30 am

The Gateway Program was established by the Province of British Columbia in response to the impact of growing regional congestion, and to improve the movement of people, goods and transit throughout Greater Vancouver. Gateway roads and bridge improvements are proposed to complement other regional road and transit improvements already planned or underway. These proposed improvements will help create a comprehensive, effective transportation network that supports improved movement of people and goods, facilitates economic growth, increases transportation choice, and provides better connections to designated population growth areas.

For more information on the Gateway Progam, downloadable copies of the program definition report, a schedule of public consultations, artist renderings, graphics and maps are available online at www.gatewayprogram.bc.ca.

The Gateway Program is committed to comprehensive community and public consultation, ensuring that the project designs consider community objectives as well as the primary project goals of addressing congestion, movement and access needs. Public consultation, including community meetings, open houses and web-based consultation will take place at each of the three key design stages:

2006: Pre-design Consultation: This stage involves gathering community feedback on conceptual proposals for new or improved roads and bridges designed to reduce congestion, improve goods movement and improve safety and reliability. Consulation topics may include lane use, HOV priority, commercial lanes, commercial priority access to highway on-ramps, and the cycling network.

2007: Preliminary Design Consultation: With basic pre-design components determined, consulation on preliminary design discusses refinements to interchange and access improvements as well as cycling features. A key outcome is community feedback on preliminary designs for consideration by the project team in developing detailed designs.

2008: Detailed Design Consultation: This stage generally focuses on fewer but more detailed treatments, such as specific interchange and access features, lighting and landscaping. This stage also involves more financial and technical analysis to ensure designs are financially and technically feasible.

Public input from consultations will be considered along with technical and financial inputs as the Gateway Program refines each component and moves into the next design stage. As part of the environmental assessment process, there will be further opportunity for public input. Over the next few months, the Gateway Program will be hosting public open houses on the Port Mann / Highway 1 Project. View the Gateway Program Open House Schedule