Interchange means

By lan Noble
News Reporter

THE bottom lines at
Westview shopping
centre are drooping
due to the ongoing
improvements at

~ Westview

Interchange.

Merchants say detours
due to ramp work on the
$33.9-million overpass are
preventing people from dri-
ving to the shopping centre.

Consequently, business is
down.

“I have many customers
from all over the city and
since this schmozzle we have
hardly had any from places
like Langley and other parts
of the city,” said Pioneer Arts
and Crafts owner
Ferne = Archer.
“It’s been partic-
ularly bad for us
because = we've
been there a
long, long time
with a very estab-
lished business
and for me to go
down the way I
have in the last

unbelievable.”

Archer, who’s
been in the shopping centre
for 18 years, said her business
is down by at least 33%.

“It is the very worst Pve
ever seen it,” she said.

Merchants add _— signs
announcing ramp closures
and detours have not been
adequate and detours have
been confusing for cus-
tomers.

Oliver Lindsay, an
employee at Wall Street
Picture Framing, said busi-
ness has been down due to
the Westview project, espe-
cially in the past ovo months.

°* — There’s a similar story at
the Westview Bakery. Cashier
Brenda Murtie said business

. for me
to go down
the way I have
in the last few
months is
few months is unbelievable.”

has fallen quite a bit.

“A lot of people swing by
here on their way home from
work and just because they

can’t get off the highway they
are not coming,” she said.

Murtie said she’s sure
business will pick up when
the Westview Interchange is
completely open.

“It was fine up until now,”
she noted.

Westview Project manager
Chris Hardwick said
Westview’s casibound = on-
ramp and westbound off-
ramp are closed.

He hopes to have them
open by Easter, but thar tar-
get date is weather depen-
dent.

“If this weather keeps

up,” he said, as another tor-
rential downpour cascaded
down trom dark
skies, “I can tell
you it’s not
going to hap-
pen. If we ger a
decent run next
week it may be
achievable.”
He said he does
not know what
else project
workers could
have done to
notify drivers of
detours and clo-
sures. Signage, radio and
hewspaper advertisements,
newspaper articles, an infor-
mation line, periodic updates
and a ministry detour phone
line have all been used to get
the message out.

“All I can say to people
who are frustrated is we're
frustrated too. We're frustrar-
ed with the fact we've had the
worst winter in 80 years and
it has had a signiticant impact
on our work,” Hardwick said.

Project workers removed a
traffic signal on Highway 1 a
week ago, allowing highway
traffic to flow freely past
Westview for the first time in
more than 30 years.

less change for Sho}

NEWS photo Terry Peters

FERNE Archer (above) says her business and that of other Westview shopping centre merchants has dropped
as work on the Westview interchange has progressed. Westview project manager Chris Hardwick hopes to
have two ramps completed by Easter, but whether that will happen depends on the unpredictable weather.

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