Highway, infrastructure upgrades underway at busy B.C. border crossing

ALDERGROVE, B.C.—A project to add more lanes as well as new cyclist and pedestrian infrastructure to a Canada-U.S. border crossing southeast of Vancouver has begun in Aldergrove.

Tybo Contracting Ltd. will spearhead the $25.5 million project. The Langley, B.C.-based company won a $15.4 million contract for work on Highway 13 last month.

The road, which hosts one of the four border crossings in B.C.’s lower mainland, will be widened to five lanes, up from just two currently.

“Highway 13 supports a growing community and a busy border crossing where people are often stuck in a traffic jam,” Claire Trevena, the province’s minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, said in a statement. “We’re building more capacity to keep people and commercial traffic flowing without such long delays.”

The work includes a new southbound Nexus lane, a northbound truck climbing lane and commercial vehicle lanes. A facility for cyclists and pedestrians crossing the border is also included in the plan.

B.C. and Ottawa will each contribute to the project, investing $15.5 million and $10 million respectively. They said the new Nexus and truck lanes are expected to divert 30 per cent of the traffic away from the general purpose border crossing lanes. About 6,000 vehicles use the route daily during the summer.

Work on the project is expected to wrap up by fall 2019.