Businesses want commitment on when Highway 1 expansion will be complete

Abbotsford, B.C. -

There was plenty of gridlock on Highway 1 near Abbotsford on Saturday as motorists headed to the Airshow, just as city officials warned there would be.

But traffic actually moved efficiently all along the Trans-Canada from Vancouver, until the point where it shrinks from three to two lanes, just past Langley.

“We see more and more pile-ups on the highway and the infrastructure just isn’t there,” said Alex Mitchell, CEO of Abbotsford Chamber of Commerce.

“We are so, so far behind when it comes to building the infrastructure that we need.”

Mitchell calls the transportation corridor the “lifeblood of commerce and connectivity,” and told CTV News the daily gridlock is taking a toll on the economy.

“Whether they’re agricultural producers or manufacturers, actually being able to bring their products from Abbotsford to the Port of Metro Vancouver, they’re sitting in gridlock for hours on end, and ultimately that costs those businesses, and in turn costs the consumer at the end of the day,” she said.

She is urging the B.C. government to commit to expanding the highway all the way to Chilliwack, by a certain date.

Work is already underway to widen the Trans-Canada from Langley to Mt. Lehman Road in Abbotsford, and that is expected to be complete around 2026.

But Mitchell said the province has not given a timeline for construction beyond that.

“It’s always busy,” she said. “I think we’ve gone from it just being a case of having a high volume of traffic during rush-hour, to it just being a constant.”