Motorists frustrated by delays along Fraser Highway can blame the weather.
Construction on widening the road from the Langley City border to just west of the 216 Street intersection has slowed the pace for about a month.
If Mother Nature co-operates, the widened road will be finished during the week of Aug. 6, said Duane Odenbach, who is managing the project for the Township. The final lift of pavement has been poured.
One of the areas crews are working on is a dip in the eastbound lanes where the newly widened road meets the two lanes of existing pavement near McDonald’s restaurant.
Over the next few days, crews will be painting lines, placing concrete barriers along the centre median, and installing the last of the street lights.
Coupled with the replacement of the Nicomekl bridge at Old Yale Road in the City, the Fraser Highway project has inconvenienced motorists for about three years now.
The widening of this section began in September and was to have been completed by the end of June, Odenbach said.
“Considering the amount of rain we’ve had we have done quite well,” he said.
Once complete, the drive to work or the shops with be smoother for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians.
The project includes a shared bicycle and pedestrian pathway along the south side of Fraser Highway. This path, reached by the sidewalk on the south side of Fraser Highway, will lead walkers to an upgraded and illuminated pedestrian underpass which was once used as a passageway for cows to travel under the road from one pasture to another.
The total cost of the project is $4.2 million, half of which is funded by TransLink.