Quesnel Mayor Bob Simpson wants to provide some clarification on some issues he’s been hearing and seeing on social media.
“I feel we need to have some clarifications in advance of Monday’s open house on Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MOTI) interconnector (bypass) around the City of Quesnel.”
The City’s open house will be held at the Quesnel & District Seniors’ Centre (461 Carson Ave.) on Monday (Feb. 19) from 3 to 7 p.m.
The mayor says this is a MOTI project and not a City project. However, he adds the City was fully engaged in the planning exercise that led to the recommendations.
“The money for the proposed North-South Interconnector (and all the other proposed projects) is provincial transportation dollars that will go to transportation projects elsewhere if not spent here — there is no option to “use the money for other community purposes.”
Simpson notes the highway bridges across the Quesnel River need to be rebuilt within five to eight years regardless of whether an interconnector is built. The cost of replacing those bridges is about half the cost of the total North-South Interconnector project, he adds.
“If the Interconnector isn’t supported by the community, the bridges will simply be replaced and we’ll be stuck with truck traffic and the highway traffic on Carson Ave. and Front Street for the next 50 years.
“There is no appetite for the Province to add another bridge over the Quesnel River in order to facilitate a bypass (it would be a third bridge and the current bridges would still need to be replaced) — a second crossing over the Fraser River is needed before another crossing over the Quesnel River.”
Simpson says it is not a given that property values in North Quesnel will decline as a result of the Interconnector being built.
There are plenty of high-value properties and neighbourhoods right beside major highways all over the province (and North America).
“The success of any mitigation strategies to reduce the impact of the interconnector will ultimately determine the assessed values of impacted properties.”
The mayor says the only landowners MOTI notified and met with were those whom the ministry believes it would have to purchase property from based on their initial assessment of the footprint required for the Interconnector.
If the project proceeds to the next planning phase, then more landowners will be engaged in that process and in the development of mitigation strategies, he adds.
“We have a choice — keep discussing options and alternates for another 50 years (the current discussion about a “bypass” has been going on for 47 years) or take advantage of the MOTI’s support for a route that: takes all commercial truck traffic off Front and Carson; uses a route that the mills and the downtown businesses support; will reduce some of our air quality issues in the downtown core; gets the dangerous goods away from the hospital and Fraser Village; and gives us the ability to completely reinvent our downtown core to attract and retain more visitors, residents, and investment.”
The mayor points out the other critical project that needs community support is the re-engineering of the Racing Road and Hydraulic Road intersections to improve the safety of that section of Highway 97.
“I fully support the proposed North-South Interconnector. I know that some property owners will be impacted by this proposal, how adverse that impact is remains to be seen.
“The City is committed to working with MOTI and the impacted landowners to minimize the impact as much as possible.
“But, the community benefits we will obtain are significant and long sought after, and we need to grab this opportunity to realize them.
“Please show up on Monday [Feb. 19] at the Seniors’ Centre between 3 and 7 p.m. to support these proposals.”
People who are unable to attend the open house can send their feedback online at https://goo.gl/EtK1eJ