Lafarge Canada has been awarded the Main Street/Dollarton Highway Interchange contract, the final phase of the $198m Highway 1 Lower Lynn Improvement Project in Metro Vancouver.

The $8.5 million construction contract involves reconfiguring the eastbound Dollarton Highway and Main Street on-ramps to share the third lane of the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge using adaptive signalling.

Adaptive signal-control technology adjusts the timing of red, yellow and green lights to accommodate changing traffic patterns to ease traffic congestion and provide a safer merge. This will improve traffic flow and reduce travel time for people heading eastbound. The signalling system will also help reduce fuel consumption and lessen greenhouse gas emissions caused by idling cars.

The project will include a new bus queue jump lane that will make it easier for buses to enter the highway from the Phibbs exchange. Various active-transportation improvements are also being made that will make it easier and safer for pedestrians and cyclists to enter and exit the North Shore, Ironworkers and local transit stations.

Lafarge is expected to start construction on this segment of the Lower Lynn Improvement Project in the coming weeks with completion expected for fall 2021.

Once the full Lower Lynn Improvement Project is complete, Highway 1 travel during peak times is expected to be reduced by at least nine minutes in the eastbound direction and four minutes in the westbound direction between the top of the cut to mid-span Ironworkers Memorial Bridge.  The new roadwork will create safer merge lanes and reduce the risk of accidents in the area.

Funding for all four phases of the Lower Lynn Improvement Project is being provided by the Province of B.C. ($76.7 million), Government of Canada ($55 million), the District of North Vancouver ($57 million) and third parties ($9.2 million), for a total investment of $198 million.