Three eastbound lanes on Metro Vancouver’s new $3.3-billion Port Mann Bridge opened Tuesday, but officials say construction is expected to cause major delays in the next two weeks.
“We're going to be going flat out in the Cape Horn Interchange between now and December. In particular [during] the last two weekends in September there are some significant works that still have to be done,” said Max Logan from the Transportation Investment Corporation.
Both frustrated commuters and project officials are excited to see progress on the project, which has been a construction zone for five years and won’t be complete until 2013.
“This project has been close to a decade in the planning and in the building so this morning's milestone is pretty significant, it's pretty exciting,” said Logan.
Eight lanes of the bridge will open in December and the remaining two will be complete a year after that.
When the remaining lanes open commute times will drop by as much as 30 per cent, according to project officials, but the time savings will come at a cost.
For now the bridge is free to use but starting in December cars will be tolled $1.50 each way.
The tolls will jump to $3 on March 1, but the government says drivers who register for a free tolling account by Feb. 28 will continue to pay the introductory rate for another nine months.
Cars pulling trailers or light trucks will pay an introductory rate of $4.50, which will jump up to $6 on March 1 for non-account holders. The introductory rate for motorcycles will be $1, a reduction of 50 cents off of the regular toll.
Semis and tractor-trailers will be paying $9 per crossing.
Once complete, the Port Mann Bridge will enter the Guinness Book of World Records as the widest bridge on the planet.
The bridge is just over 65 metres wide for most of its 470-metre-long span, and reaches 65.231 metres at its widest points – beating the previous record set by the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia by more than 16 metres.
