Contentious road
mtract ox'd

lirik

BY MARTIN MILLEACHIP
Contributing Writer

THE tender for work
on the controversial
Moniroyal Connector
has been approved by
North Vancouver
District Council.

Pedre Contractors Ltd.
were awarded the $430,857
contract Monday in a 5-2 vote
that saw some opponents chal-
lenge the design safety of the
road alignment and the dis-
trict's funding priorities.

The road connection on
Montroyal Boulevard from
Prospect Road west to
Starlight Way has been pro-
posed for over 30 years as purt
of an Upper Capilano link to
Lonsdale Avenue.

The issue has been so con-
tentious that two years ago
district planners moved debate
over the connector fromm the
North Lonsdale Official
Community Plan to its own
discussion forum.

Funding for road construc-
tion was finally approved by
council in the 1996 capital
budget.

The connector’s design. by

‘consulting engineers N.D.
Lea, has been the subject of an
independent peer review by
Delcan Corporation which
concluded _“the . geometry
complies with the require-

- . ments for safe traffic opera-

tion. as measured ‘against
design guidelines prevailing
in the road engineering indus-
try and currently being
applied in the District of
North Vancouver.”

But Prospect Road resident
Terry Mulder, an engineer
himself, says the review is

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“far short of the professional
quality and responsibilities
one expects of such a docu-
ment.”

Mulder has placed a com-
plaint before the Board of
Ethics of the Association of
Professional Engineers and
Geoscientists of B.C.

Proponents of the connec-
tor urged council Manday to
put the issue to rest.

“As long as it sits on the
books it’s going to cause prob-
lems," said = Boundary
Ratepayers Association repre-
sentative Jim Glassford.

Connector opponents Ray
Brown and Kevin Kerney
challenged council's Spending
priorities.

They noted that council is
facing the unexpected expense
of approximately $1 million to
build a debris catchment basin
on MacKay Creek to prevent
future flood camage in the
Upper Lonsdale area.

Brown and Kemey argued
that council should apply the
money earmarked for the
Montroyal Connector to the
debris basin.

The contract tender repre-
sents less than half of the con-
nector’s total costs.

Coun. Jim Cuthbert point-
ed out that the estimated pro-
ject cost including the dis-
trict’s costs was $940,000 and
did not’ include the cost of
sidewalks and a crosswalk
west of Starlight.

Coun. Don Bell agreed that
flood-control measures had a
higher priority and asked staff
to confirm whether funding
was available this year for
both projects. -

‘In the end, only Coun.
Janice Harris joined Cuthbert
in opposing the tender con-
tract.

Harris ripped into engi-

all summer

long. Lovely
selection of

neering staff for failing to pro-
vide council and public with
the Delcan review and a
detailed map of the tendered
contract.

She contended that the
connector would not reduce
cut-through traffic problems
in Delbrook and would add to
upper Lonsdale’s traffic load.

“This is an expensive non-
solution from a hide-bound
engineering department. that
takes N. D. Lea’s word as
gospel,” charged Harris.

Traffic ist
aid rolls

SO far police patrolling the
rush-hour opportunity at
the Second Narrows Bridge
have had few emergency
situations to deal with.

In one case 4 woman
passing time with her knit-
ting needles in stalled traf-

fic inadvertently stabbed.
‘herself when her car began
‘to roll again.

in another case a woman
on her way for surgery, rid-
ing with her doctor, was
helped on her way through
traffic by the police.

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