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June 3, 2015 Y www.CloverdaleReporter.com Y
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Traffic chaos for 18 months for bridge work Patullo Bridge to be completely closed nights and weekends while major repairs are done to improve safety By Jeff Nagel Commuters can brace for a year and a half of worsened congestion starting next spring when TransLink closes half the lanes of the Pattullo Bridge for major repairs and shuts down the entire crossing at night and on weekends. For 18 months likely beginning next April, the already heavily congested bridge will be reduced from four lanes to two on weekdays – one in each direction – and heavy trucks
will be banned, along with cyclists and pedestrians. TransLink infrastructure management and engineering vice-president Fred Cummings acknowledged it will mean major disruptions for commuters and the congestion there will spill over to other routes as motorists avoid the Pattullo. “It looks like it’s going to add, depending on the time of day, anywhere from five to 15 minutes at the minimum to people’s travel time if they try to go across the Pattullo on
a weekday,” he said. “It’s also going to have impacts on the other crossings as far to the west as the Alex Fraser and possibly the Massey Tunnel as well.” But he said the work must go ahead. The 78-year-old bridge needs a $100-million deck rehabilitation and a seismic upgrade, including the addition of seismic bearings. See TRUCKERS / Page 8
Dumping targeted Region takes a stand for farmland
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Donors (top row) and students (bottom row) at the ribbon cutting ceremony May 22 for the new playground expansion at A.J. McLellan Elementary are joined by Surrey board of education chair Laurae McNally (top row, fourth from right), City of Surrey manager Tim Neufeld, Surrey Schools superintendent Andrew Holland and school principal Jas Atwal.
School playground project celebrated Students will no longer have to play in shifts, thanks to successful campaign By Jennifer Lang The new playground structure at A.J. McLellan Elementary is only a few weeks old, and already the spinners and bucket swings are a hit. And best of all, separate playtimes for students in junior and senior grades are a thing of the past, thanks to a successful
AFFORDABLE
INDEPENDENT
community playground fundraising campaign launched two years ago by the school’s Parent Advisory Council. The school’s student population had grown from 250 to over 500 in a decade, resulting in an eight-classroom expansion several years ago. The old playground, popular with neighbours and community groups, wasn’t up to LIVING
live life $2,275
the task in terms of safety or size. The west Cloverdale school at 16545 61 Ave. is in a booming residential area with hundreds of new townhomes being built. School principal Jas Atwal says enrolment is projected to climb to 550 in the nest few years. See PLAYGROUND / Page 3
WELCOMING NEW PATIENTS
By Jeff Nagel Metro Vancouver cities are vowing to take coordinated action to stop the dumping of illegal fill on farmland, which degrades it and may contaminate it with demolition debris or invasive species like fire ants. Some cities in the region have controls on soil excavated and deposited within their boundaries, but there’s no good system to track movements of fill that cross civic boundaries. Compacted soil excavated from urban construction sites gets trucked – sometimes surreptitiously – out to agricultural areas where farmland owners are paid handsomely to accept fill loads. Politicians fear that, if left unchecked, the practice will render vast swaths of farmland un-
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17528 59TH AVE SURREY | 778-373-0299 | BETHSHANGARDENS BETHSHANGARDENS.ORG ORG Owned by Cloverdale Seniors Citizen Housing Society
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“We need a unified stand,” Richmond Coun. Harold Steves told the Metro Vancouver board May 15. “Lots of land owners are quite happy to take [money] from truckers who want to get rid of the soil and do it in the dark of night or weekends.” Land owners get paid $100 to $200 per truckload, which can See ILLEGAL / Page 6
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Land owners get paid $100 to $200 per truckload of illegal fill.
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productive because of the temptation of shortterm gain. Degraded farmland may become truck parking lots and poor soil can ultimately be an argument to allow development.
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