WEDNESDAY
October 16, 1996

OIL CHANGES...
EVERY 3 MONTHS OR 5,000 km
1790 Marine Dr. North Van 987-8006

pore erenenety

Project upsets homeowners

By Anna Marie D'Angelo
News Reporter

THE Westview
Interchange project is
driving Jann Mittlestead
out of her home.

It sits next to the new eastbound
lanes on the Upper Levels Highway
thar are part of the $32-million
Westview Interchange project.

Mittlestead tried unsuccessfully to
stop the construction of a pedestrian
overpass that now runs along her
property in the 2400-block of Jones
Avenue.

An east-west stretch of the pedes-
trian walkway comes within feet oC her
house. Mittlestead said she can actual-
ly hear people speaking oa the over-
pass while she is sitting in ber home.

“It is unlivable,” she said on
Wediesday,

Then there is the trate noise,
which bounces off the overpass into
her yard and house.

“You can’t even sleep. It feels like
trucks are driving through the house,”

said Mittlestead, who has fived in her
house for 19 years.

Ministry of ‘Transportation and
Highways project: manager Leagh
Martell has confirmed that the min-
istry has been negotiating the pur-
chase of Mittlestead’s property.

But Mittlestead said she has been
offered too little, The numbers are
confidential.

Chris Hardwick, project manager
for Walter & SCI Construction,
Westview’s general contractor, said
the interchange is being built to min-
istry guidelines.

“Phave no doubt that it is noisier
pecause the trafic is much closer to
them than what it used to be,”
Hardwick said.

All Upper Levels traffic is current-
fy being routed along the highway's
south Janes nest to the contentious
property,

But Mittlestead is not the only one
with Westview Interchange problems.

Her acighbor to the west, Chris
Leuchte, has a highway light shining,
into his house.

“They have taken away my view of
the stars by putting a street light 80

: pak 1
PRPS TRA PTT

NEWS photo Pati McGrath

NEWS photo Paul McGrath

JASON Silverthorne holds an item tossed on his home. His
partner, Jann Mittlestead, stands on the couple’s back porch.

feet over my bedroom window,” said
Leuchte. The view trom the pedestn-
an overpass also looks straight into his
yard and bedroom window.

Like Mitilestead, I cuchte is critical
of the public access and input to inter-
change plans.

“They kind of make you feel like
you've got something ta say, but in

the long-run it has been shoved down
our throats,” said Leuchte.

He has lived in his house since
1980.

Leuchte plans to move off the
North Shore have “been accelerated”
by the interchange. The highways ts
eight lanes wide near Jones Avenue,
up from the previous five.

WEATHER

Thursday: Mix of sun > cloud
C, low 4°C.

Lanskai
By lan Nobie
News Reporter

DON Lanskail, a for-
mer two-term West
Vancouver mayor and
long-time alderman,
died Sunday at Lions
Gate Hospital of cancer.

He was 78.
Lanskail
was remem-
bered
Tuesday by
family,
friends, and
business asso-
ciates as an
honest and
respectable
gendemen.
Said cur-
rent West
Vancouver
Mayor Mark
Sager:
“Where do

FORMER West
Van mayor Don
Lanskail died

See Service page 3 on Sunday.

Hardwick said that a deflector
shield was going to be placed on the
light bothering Leuchte.

Miristry guidelines, he said,
require the light to be where it is.

Meanwhile back at the pedestrian
overpass, Mitrlestead has also. raised
concerns about household security.

The construction company sta-
tioned a security guard in front of
Mittlestead’s house from 8 p.m. to 8
am. for about a week at the begin-
ning of the manth following a request
from Mittlestead and other residents.

Hardwick said the guard was a
“public relations gesture.” But he
added that nothing of note happened
on the overpass while the guard was
watching.

Mittlestead said the fast year of
interchange construction has been
hell: “We are probably at our wits end
.. We need to get healthy.”

About 80,000) vehicles travel
through the intersection at Westacw
Drive and the Trans-Canada Highway
each day.

Sept. 28 marked the first day in 40
years that cars travelling east on the
highway did not have to stop at

stview traffic fights.

‘The interchange is scheduled to be
completed in late spring 1997.

faat