New Westminster is proposing a pedestrian and bicycle bridge from Quayside to Queensborough. The open house project boards are HERE and contain a wealth of lovely detail.
A pedestrian and bicycle connection between Quayside and Queensborough (the “Q2Q” Bridge) has long been an important City objective. Approximately $6.3 million from casino revenues are expected to be available for the project, which must be expended by the end of 2017.pedestrian and cycling connection between Quayside and Queensborough has long been an important local and regional objective. The planned Quayside to Queensborough Bridge (Q2Q) will connect residents, employees and tourists traveling between the Queensborough community, downtown New Westminster and points beyond.
From a regional transportation perspective, the bridge will link greenways on the north and south side of the Fraser River and the New Westminster SkyTrain Station to Queensborough. It will also provide enhanced access along the scenic Fraser River and complete a key missing link in the Experience the Fraser trail system running from Hope to the Salish Sea.
Note the planned reciprocal effects between this bridge and Skytrain, which enables more multi-mode travel.
The Q2Q Bridge will provide a sustainable car-free connection that will reduce congestion on existing transportation corridors and improve air quality through lower emissions.
Click to access Q2Q_Bridge_Brochure_2015_02_02.pdf
Wow, this could been False Creek’s trestle bridge if the powers that be hadn’t been so bloody-minded about tearing it down prior to Expo 86.
What’s the budget for the bridge (i.e. to compare for a False Creek bridge).
I couldn’t find it in either of the links posted.
We need one like that over False Creek west of Burrard.
False Creek widens rapidly west of the Burrard bridge, so you wouldn’t be able to build very far westward and any reasonable new crossing would only gain you a few blocks’ advantage – it hardly seems worth it. By contrast the one in New Westminster saves you 3km over having to go west to the Queensborough bridge and back again.
Kits Point is sufficiently close to sea level as to need some sea level rise help anyway … Why not connect the city (ala q2q) and kill some other birds while you’re at it. https://www.sfu.ca/rise/entries/Prescribe-mountains.html
I don’t like the name. Using a 2 for “to” already sounds dated now, what about in the future?It’s just too 1990’s internet slangy for my taste.
It should be QTQ or QueenQuay or something else entirely.
What’s the Coast Salish word for the place? Maybe that.
Hilarious. The 1990s is ‘dated’ so let’s use a Kwantlen term from the early 1800s. I’ll tell you what’s dated; spelling Canada backwards.
Adanac is a bike route. Perfectly appropriate for an urbanist blog
I prefer to think of it more as “classic”. 🙂
The local first nations called the area “QayQayt”, or resting place, which continues the Q-Q theme… but the “Q2Q” name was not a branding exercise so much as one that just evolved as the project joined the public conversation.
The rendering above is rather preliminary, and it appears some constraints put on the structure by the Navigable Waters and the input of the Marine Carriers will make for a somewhat less fluid connection than initially wanted. Ramps and elevators may be needed to achieve the regulatory elevation, even with the bascule. See link below. A work in progress…
http://www.newwestcity.ca/database/files/library/FINAL_Q2Q_Dec_2015_compressed.pdf
There’s a trade-off between the height of the bridge deck in the closed position versus how often it has to be opened. What you pay for in terms of effort to ascend a steeper or longer ramp to a higher bridge deck you gain in terms of increased availability of the crossing due to not having to open for smaller vessels.
Hi Patrick: Thanks for the feedback. Nice that a bridge is going in since this will complete and important link in the regional cycling network.
I notice in the drawings that slopes are up to 8%!!! This is crazy steep and super unsafe. Slope should preferably be 3% and certainly no higher than 5%. Also, consideration should be given to separation of pedestrians from those riding bikes.
Thanks Arno. Can I suggest you make those recommendations to the on-line consultation on the City of New Westminster page I linked to above?
8% is crazy steep. Don’t these designers do a Google search to find current best practise before they design something?
Also, I noticed it’s way too narrow. It needs to be twice as wide. Imagine going downhill on a bike, your speed increasing (because of the steep slope) and you don’t have any room to go around some people walking?
And of course, people will be blaming each other instead of the bridge’s design.
I see in the plans that they are considering elevators. And they’re the kind that you don’t have to turn around in. This is good.
Everybody that sees faults or inadequacies should contact them so they know and can go and redesign it better.