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Gateway freeway expansion cancelled despite signed contract

BLOG POST posted on March 22, 2011 by edoherty

Blog posts are the work of individual contributors, reflecting their thoughts, opinions and research.

In New Brunswick, Gateway freeway expansion cancelled despite signed contract

By Eric Doherty, March 21, 2011

It seems that “Gateway” is a popular name for unpopular freeway projects. Like in the Lower Mainland of B.C., the provincial government in New Brunswick had been trying to push through an expensive freeway expansion scheme called Gateway over the objections of local residents.

The similarities between the two Gateway schemes is uncanny. There was even a bog that was threatened by Gateway on the outskirts of Saint John, New Brunswick—Renforth Bog. In the Lower Mainland it is Burns Bog in Delta that is threatened by the Gateway freeway scheme.

The difference is that the people of Saint John who opposed plans to widen the Mackay Highway to six freeway lanes have won already. On March 18, the government of New Brunswick sent out a media release titled “Mackay Highway project amended”. The release states: “After serious consideration, our government has determined that the Mackay Highway expansion project will be amended. It is part of this government’s mandate to review all capital projects to reduce costs. As a result of this review, we have concluded that the proposed widening of the Mackay Highway is not necessary at this time.”

See the full text with links, and leave a comment, at
http://www.straight.com/article-382624/vancouver/eric-doherty-new-brunswick-gateway-freeway-expansion-cancelled-despite-signed-contract

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Comments

Wed, 03/23/2011 - 21:39 — jjones (not verified)

Gateway Is a Dirty Word

Gateway is new universal desecration code for any government attempt to impose virulent blight on a subject population. Start with the Marine Gateway proposal where Richmond meets Vancouver. Move on to Burrard Gateway, where Vancouver views get sacrificed to fantasies of taller towers. Norquay abuse continues with a weird notion that what was to be a neighbourhood centre somehow requires skyrise gateway buildings at either end of a one-mile stretch of Kingsway -- the physical opposite of creating a new centre! In the BC context, all of this alienating replication looks to be the shameless spawn of that Port Mann atrocity.

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