citing inflationary pressures<\/a>, supply chain issues and construction of the bridge tower taking longer than expected.<\/p>\nThe new stal\u0315\u0259w\u0313as\u0259m, or Riverview Bridge, opened all four lanes to traffic in February 2026.<\/p>\n
With traffic now using the new crossing, crews are removing the Pattullo Bridge\u2019s steel arches, lowering them onto barges for dismantling and recycling. The full demolition is expected to take until the end of 2027.<\/p>\n
Confusion remains<\/p>\n
The New Westminster mayor said there\u2019s been confusion among residents as the city realigns the “spaghetti of lanes” connecting to the new bridge amid ongoing closures and detours, but the city is doing its best to keep them informed.<\/p>\n
“Don\u2019t rely on your GPS when you\u2019re trying to get to the Pattullo [Bridge],” said Johnstone.<\/p>\n
Alex Jopson, president of the Sapperton Business Collective, said businesses in the New Westminster neighbourhood haven\u2019t been heavily affected, but concerns remain about potential disruptions, especially during the holidays.<\/p>\n
“If you could snap your fingers and make it done tomorrow, that would be the ideal situation,” he said.<\/p>\n
Matthew Hill, head instructor at HIVE Surrey, a recreational climbing gym, said continuous delays and traffic disruptions from bridge construction have made it harder for people to “come all this distance to get their climb on.”<\/p>\n
He believes that, with the project entering its final demolition phases, there will be fewer last-minute changes and disruptions to traffic flow.<\/p>\n
“I do hope that it\u2019ll be easier for people to get to the location. We are tucked away a little bit in an industrial district,” said Hill.<\/p>\n
But for some, the Pattullo Bridge was more than just a way to get over the Fraser River.<\/p>\n
Laura Grady, executive director of Arts New West, said the bridge has inspired poetry, visual art and storytelling, all while connecting communities.<\/p>\n
“We\u2019re going to miss it. We\u2019re going to miss being able to capture it,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":929739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":["post-929738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=929738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/929739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=929738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=929738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=929738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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