THE CITY and the provincial transportation ministry are to be congratulated for reaching a solution to the matter of long vehicles using the Frank St. level CN railway crossing.
Quick recap: There isn’t enough room between the crossing and Hwy16 for a long vehicle to clear the tracks while waiting until it’s safe to turn onto the highway. Two recent incidents of vehicles blocking the tracks with trains approaching were enough for Transport Canada to order the crossing closed to all traffic.
The solution is a set of highway traffic lights similar to what’s now at the Kenney St. railway crossing. Timed to act in concert with CN’s own lights and crossing barriers, this will provide a clear route for trains.
It is not, however, an answer to the challenge of more and more trains causing traffic delays at both the Kenney and Frank crossings. That’s going to require a second overpass.
It will be expensive but look at the Lower Mainland where the federal and provincial governments are building the South Fraser Perimeter Road, a transport route containing three interchanges and nine overpasses to separate commercial from everyday traffic on local roads.
If the federal and provincial governments can put $1.264 billion into the South Fraser project, then an additional overpass here in Terrace, where local traffic issues are every bit as pressing as they are down south, should not be a terribly daunting proposition.
