North Surrey will be getting a truck parking facility as early as winter 2018, Surrey-Fleetwood MLA Peter Fassbender announced on March 27 at the Nordel Way Truck Parking Facility.
The new $30 million facility will be the second commercial truck parking facility built under B.C. on the Move, the province’s 10-year transportation plan.
The provincial government has committed $17 million of the $30 million project. The province is looking for partnership funding from the federal government.
The parking facility will have room for 150 trucks, including monthly reserved spots and and first-come-first-serve spots. It will also include washrooms, showers, a sani-dump and a cafeteria, as well as a number of security measures such as fences and lights.
“It’s going to be important that we continue to provide safe sites throughout the province that are secure, that are patrolled, so the truckers know when they park their truck and they go home for the evening that their vehicles will be protected,” Fassbender said.
The secure washrooms will also allow more women to enter the trucking industry, Ken Johnson, first vice-chairperson of the B.C. Trucking Association, said.
A lack of proper facilities, he said, makes it more “challenging for women to come into this industry.”
The North Surrey parking facility will be located on provincial land on the north side of Highway 17, just below the Port Mann Bridge. Site preparation will begin this summer.
This won’t be the last parking facility for the Lower Mainland. A parking facility on Nordel Way was opened in fall of 2016, and the province is looking at other locations for future facilities.
Fassbender announced a number of other trucking initiatives at the March 27 announcement, including an increase in the maximum weight for 10-axle container trucks and finding ways to replace permits for low-risk oversize and overweight trucks with regulation.
