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Seven New West transportation projects get funding from TransLink

The money comes from the transportation authority’s 2022 Municipal Funding Program

Author

Ria Renouf
August 08, 2022

A sign marking the Central Valley Greenway in New Westminster

Seven New Westminster-based projects will receive money this year from TransLink’s Municipal Funding Program (MFP). The MFP helps with maintenance, upgrades, and building transportation infrastructure in Metro Vancouver. 

Of the $130 million dedicated to more than 100 projects, TransLink is giving New Westminster about $1.3 million.

What are the projects in New West receiving funding from TransLink?

  • 9th Avenue and 21st Street sidewalk and lighting;

  • A multi-use path for Boyd Street in Queensborough;

  • An upgrade for the Central Valley Greenway, from Hume Park to the Brunette-Fraser Greenway. This will include a four-lane road design with a separate multi-use path on East Columbia Street;

  • Constructing a multi-use path at Grimston Park between the Stewardson Way overpass and city laneway to the north;

  • Putting in a pedestrian signal at McBride Boulevard and Sangster Place;

  • Adding a bikeway on Ninth Street from Queens Avenue to Seventh Avenue, plus a multi-use path across Moody Park from Ninth Street to Seventh Avenue;

  • Money has also been earmarked for the improvements to the Rotary Crosstown Greenway.

“I don’t know if there were more [projects that New West applied for] that they didn’t get. I do know that, in the vast majority—there are very few cases—but there are almost no cases where we say no,” says TransLink spokesperson Dan Mountain. “In fact, the only times that we ever say no, we don’t really say no. We just push it to another year if it’s not quite ready.”

Part of the Central Valley Greenway at Richmond and Columbia

As for what exactly the improvements will entail, Mountain says that’ll be up to each municipality.

“[Municipalities] give us a very high-level application,” says Mountain, who adds that typically the next phase after the funding has been confirmed includes detailed planning for each aspect.

One project receiving additional funding from TransLink stretches from Hume Park to the Brunette-Fraser Regional Greenway. This is the same stretch of road that resident Phil Kehres spoke to New West Anchor about in May. Some of the same stretch appears in the city’s sustainable transportation plan; the most recent update estimates the design process will start in 2023.