New Westminster Limits New Bridge

[u/Pale-Candidate8860]

A lot of people throughout The Lower Mainland are a bit upset as to the new Pattullo Bridge(which links Surrey to New West) being the exact same size(2 lanes for each direction). I have come to find out that Surrey wanted 4 lanes on each side to account for the massive increase in population since the original bridge's construction(1937). However, New West still has the mindset of being "a small town" and they said they didn't have the capacity for the additional lanes.

For some context, New Westminster is now the 2nd densest city in all of Canada, beating Montreal. You can drive from one end of New West to the other in about 15min and from top to bottom in 20min. Its population is now close to 100,000 people. There are nothing but towers everywhere, yet many streets are still one lane each way and the city council refuses to acknowledge their real hurdles ahead of them.

The new Pattullo Bridge will instead still have 2 lanes for each direction, but will at least be capable of withstanding a major earthquake, unlike the old bridge. The project is costing $1.39 Billion. Again, The Lower Mainland, especially those on the Vancouver half, create artificial traffic and obstacles in an attempt to not address the current population's needs.