Editor:
The recent fatality at 52nd Street and Highway 17 is but the latest tragedy at an entrance to Tsawwassen: ICBC reports 69 crashes there in the last five years with 29 involving injury or death. The corresponding totals at 56th Street and Highway 17 are even more alarming: 170 and 69, respectively.
And it seems certain to get much worse. Tsawwassen First Nation malls will open with more than 8,000 places for cars to park, and most will travel to and from there on Highway 17. TFN's consultants said intersection queue lengths at 56th Street should almost double when malls open.
So what's being done to prevent future crashes, injuries and deaths?
It seems that at TFN expense Highway 17 may be widened to six lanes from east of 56th Street to west of 52nd Street. This may ease some of the added traffic on Highway 17, but how about on 52nd ... or more critically, on 56th?
The consultants estimated TFN traffic will cause maximum northbound queues on 56th at Highway 17 to also almost double but TFN, despite developer payments, declines to fund flyovers at either intersection, suggesting these be deferred and funded by B.C. and/or Metro Vancouver.
In 2012 Delta declared that when malls open there must not only be a widened Highway 17 but also overpasses at 52nd and 56th streets. These demands were made in letters to TFN and the minister of transportation and infrastructure, yet posted ministry financial plans currently make no mention of upgrades to the either intersection.
In two years TFN mall traffic will hugely and negatively impact us. More tragedies will surely ensue if Delta fails to cause TFN and/or B.C. to improve these intersections before then.
Delta must apply all pressures needed to avoid added deaths and injuries.
Ed Ries
