Editor: Commercial truck traffic on the Pattullo Bridge has got to be stopped — forever.
This is a small, aging infrastructure built in 1937 that will not last with the small fixes they currently do for upkeep.
These large vehicles tear apart the bridge with their length and heavy weight. Several times a day, 70-foot long semis travel over this bridge causing further damage and being nothing more than a clog in the wheel by taking up two lanes and creating a nuisance for New Westminster residential traffic.
Worst yet, these semis break down, due to a lack of upkeep on the trucks, blocking a lane for hours.
Now that this bridge is going to be reduced to one-lane traffic during repairs this spring, commercial trucks need to be banned from using this bridge altogether — not only during repairs, but afterwards also.
The mayors of both New Westminster and Surrey, need to ensure this ban is permanent.
The Pattullo Bridge should be designated for small vehicle traffic only like the Lions Gate Bridge which, too, was built in 1937 and is a non-truck route.
Edward Degenstien and Sandra Steffan,
Willoughby