Commuters who have had two and a half long years of watching construction on the new Mountain Highway on- and off-ramps from the Cut are now free to put them to good use.
The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure opened the new lanes on Saturday.
“It’s looking really good. I've had lots of good, positive feedback on it. And I've tried both ramps and yeah, they work fine,” said Jay Porter, project manager on the $200-million Lower Lynn improvement project. “It's really good.”
Those expecting to turn left from the new off-ramp to go north onto Mountain Highway, however, will be disappointed as only emergency vehicles will be allowed to turn north. Porter said adding a left-turn phase to the traffic signal there would have backed traffic up Mountain Highway, congesting the intersection of Mountain and Keith. Ministry staff we will be monitoring traffic and making adjustments to the signal timing as needed.
For the time being, the new on-ramp onto the Cut will also only be accessible to drivers who are southbound on Mountain Highway.
Every hour during the afternoon rush, the ministry anticipates the new off-ramp will take 800 drivers who would otherwise be bound for the Main Street/Dollarton Highway and Mount Seymour Parkway interchanges, off the cut. Together those interchanges serve about 55 per cent of all the vehicle traffic that comes to and from the North Shore, Porter said.
“And so you relieve some of that pressure further down,” he said. “We're trying to spread that traffic around a little bit more evenly with the addition of the ramps at Mountain highway.”
In mid-December, traffic in both directions will be diverted over one of the two new bridges being built across Lynn Creek, which will allow crews to rehabilitate the existing orange bridge and extend its life.
