Langley residents got their first glimpse at a proposed new Fraser Highway bridge over the Nicomekl River, during an open house on Wednesday night.

Schematics and maps set out around the hall of St. Andrew’s Anglican Church on Old Yale Road revealed the City’s vision for a new four-lane bridge, which would also include dedicated space for pedestrians and cyclists.

But it wasn’t the proposed structure itself, as much as the detours and potential traffic delays associated with it, that had people voicing concern.

Through the consultation effort, the City and its partners were looking to get public feedback before sending the project out to tender, said project manager Doug Hyde.

It was a fruitful process, he said, with two main themes emerging.

First and foremost was residents’ concern over the re-routing of traffic during construction. The other was a desire to have the Old Yale Road bridge, which sits just metres south of Fraser Highway, preserved for foot traffic.

For what will likely be a four- to six-month period next year, vehicles will be detoured in two directions away from Fraser Highway while the new bridge is constructed. One option for westbound traffic will be to travel north along 216 Street and west along 56 Avenue before hooking up to the Langley Bypass.

The other option would take drivers south on 216 Street to 48 Avenue, west to 208 Street and then back north to Fraser Highway.

Traffic moving east would be funneled along the same roads.

The process will be inconvenient, Hyde conceded, but necessary.

“It’s an old wooden bridge.”

Built decades ago, the two-lane bridge has outlived its usefulness, and is prone to rot and deterioration, he said.

Its design, including a short merge from two eastbound lanes into one, creates bottlenecks and other dangerous traffic situations.

“But the biggest thing is that it’s prone to flooding,” said Hyde.

“We saw in January 2009 it was closed because it was deemed unsafe.”

The new bridge deck will be gently sloped to raise it an additional two and a half metres, to clear 200-year flood levels, he said.

It will also be significantly shorter. The existing bridge is 49 metres long, but the new one, which is expected to cost just over $9 million, will probably be half that length, said Delcan Consultants’ Steve Russell. Benefits of a shorter bridge deck include lower construction cost, a shorter construction time and less impact on the environment, he noted.

“We view this as more an environmental project than infrastructure,” said City engineer Gary Vlieg.

The new bridge will be a clear span, meaning the Nicomekl will be able to flow freely underneath without pushing against pilings buried in the river bed.

Construction work directly involving the waterway will have to take place within a six-week Department of Fisheries and Oceans window from Aug. 1 to Sept. 15. Although there had been some consideration given to shifting the river 10 to 12 metres to the east to increase velocity of the water way, that won’t be happening, said Vlieg.

It is anticipated that construction will begin by February or March 2010, with a completion target of December 2010.

Proposals will be heavily weighted on their estimates of how quickly bidders estimate they can complete the work that requires the road to be closed.

“We’ll give big credit to the contractor who comes up with a nice, tight construction schedule,” said Russell.

To help smooth the flow of traffic on and off the bridge, the stretch of Fraser Highway to the east will also be expanded to four lanes.

That land sits within the Township, and the City had hoped the municipalities could work in partnership, hiring a single contractor to complete both projects, but it doesn’t appear that will happen, Vlieg said.

“They’ll proceed independently.”

While Murrayville resident Doug Haakonsen is in favour of the project, he fears the process will be onerous for area residents, and wonders if it’s too ambitious.

“The question is, does it need to be as big and elaborate as it is.”

Haakonsen thinks commuters will get creative and find ways around the inevitable traffic tie-ups, but large truck traffic taken off Fraser Highway will be directed as to exactly which routes to take, he said. In all likelihood that will be through the residential area along 216 Street, he fears.

“It’s really the trucks that trundle up and down, and shake and rattle.

“I’m not against the project, it’s just the details of where the traffic is going to flow.”

Haakonsen also worries the construction of townhouses along Fraser Highway, near the top of Hospital Hill, will coincide with the bridge work, meaning a number of large trucks which will also have to be re-routed through residential areas.

“Maybe they could work a system where (trucks) go up one road and down another — ideas around things that don’t have to go to TransLink (for approval).”