The city is going to undertake safety improvements on a stretch of Ladner Trunk Road in East Delta.
Council last week awarded a $780,000 contract for upgrades along 96th Street to Highway 91.
The work includes lighting improvements at the 104th Street and 112th Street intersections, select pavement rehabilitation and installation of four, speed reader boards.
The contract also includes enhanced pavement markings, reflective delineators at each utility pole and construction of an emergency pull-out near the 104th Street intersection.
The engineering department said the scope of the project is less than originally anticipated, but further road improvements will be included in a future capital plan.
To reduce the impact to commuter traffic and the farming community during harvest season, a noise variance will be issued authorizing that the majority of the work be carried out at night between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m. Monday to Sunday.
At a minimum, single-lane alternating traffic will be maintained.
Council last fall endorsed a report from the engineering department and Delta police that requested a speed limit reduction as well as safety improvements along Ladner Trunk Road.
The roadway has seen numerous accidents in recent years including a head-on crash last year near 72nd Street that resulted in a serious injury.
In late 2016, a man was killed when his vehicle struck a truck parked at the side of the road in the 10400-block of Ladner Trunk Road, and a few days later, another driver was seriously hurt in a head-on collision with a semi between 80th and 96th streets.
Also that summer, a 17-year-old male from Langley died after a head-on collision with a dump trunk in 9800-block.
A few months earlier, a Richmond couple was killed in a single-vehicle crash when their car crossed the centre line and went into a ditch between 104th Street and the Highway 99 junction.
Three years ago, an internal review by DPD looked at the situation for Ladner Trunk Road from the beginning of 2014 to November of 2016, focusing on the stretch from 96th Street to Scott Road where the majority of the collisions occurred. During that period there was a total of 44 crashes.
Distracted driving was among the contributing factors in several of the serious or fatal collisions, the review found.
