Ministry proposal to ease traffic on Ironworkers Bridge met with pushback

A proposal to ease one of Metro Vancouver’s biggest traffic bottlenecks is being met with pushback from nearby residents.

Traffic from Main Street in North Vancouver to travel over the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge can be backed up most of the day.

To address the issue, the Ministry of Transportation proposed turning the through-lane to Dollarton Highway into a second merge lane onto the bridge.

However, drivers wanting to head east of the Seymour River say this would leave them caught in the bridge traffic.

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“It’s just going to mean that two lanes are now taken up by traffic heading over an inadequate Ironworkers Memorial Bridge and that 24,000 people who use this corridor to get to Seymour are cut off,” Lisa Muri, District of North Vancouver councillor, told Global News.

Concerned residents started a petition, which has collected more than 2,800 signatures.

The ministry had indicated that it was prepared to move ahead with the realignment by mid-October but on Friday, it said the proposal is being pushed back and will be re-examined in the spring.

1:55 State of repairs of Ironworkers Memorial Bridge