Skip to content

Editorial: Terrace B.C. overpass an issue of inequity

A pedestrian overpass won't stimulate economy, but could erase an inequity between residents who walk or cycle and those who have vehicles.

SOMEPLACE somewhere within the billions and billions of new (albeit borrowed) federal government money for infrastructure projects has to be money  to build a pedestrian overpass over the CN rail yard which now divides the City of Terrace.

To be sure, a pedestrian overpass may not exactly fit the federal government’s idea that spending billions on roads and mass transit and the like will stimulate the economy.

But what a pedestrian overpass will do is erase a fundamental inequity between south side residents who walk or cycle and those who have vehicles.

North side residents clearly enjoy an advantage over those on the south side simply because of where the majority of civic and other services are now located.

Terrace mayor Carol Leclerc had it absolutely right at the last city council meeting when she pointed out that its a two-kilometre-plus journey for a south side resident on foot to get to the north side of Terrace via the Sande Overpass.

What she didn’t add is that for whatever past decisions made or, more correctly, not made, there is not even a decent sidewalk for south side residents along Keith Ave. to get to the Sande Overpass.

Council has taken the first move toward a pedestrian overpass by applying for a provincial grant leading to a construction design. May it be a speedy journey.



About the Author: Rod Link

Read more