S TANDARD TERRACE
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VOL. 27 NO. 49
www.terracestandard.com
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Overpass will be widened By JOSH MASSEY
owners have to maintain them, but a sewer system places the responsibility in the regional district’s hands, he added. And it opens up the area for businesses, which are more likely to want to develop land and build on it with a sewer system, said Ramsey. Money was never available to pay for a major portion of the expansion until now.
THE SANDE Overpass is going to look a lot different later this year after the provincial transportation ministry finishes a major project to add a fifth lane to the Hwy16 structure which connects the northern and southern portions of the city. Contractors are to widen the overpass on its southwestern portion to then create two turning lanes for traffic turning eastward from the north. Traffic flow in all directions on the south end of the overpass will then be regulated by installing lights on that south end where it meets Hwy16/Keith Ave. from the east and Keith Ave. from the west. The project, one of several for the area, was announced last week and is in response to repeated calls from the City of Terrace and others to ease congestion and create a safer traffic pattern on the overpass. Local officials and others have called for improvements based on increased traffic from projected major liquefied natural gas plant construction and other major developments in the region. It also ends, for now, other calls for a second crossing route over the CN rail tracks which divide the city. “Currently there is just one left turn lane so when you come over the overpass [from the north] and you go to turn left there is just one [lane],” explained local transportation manager Darrell Gunn of the current traffic pattern. “So now there are going to be two dedicated left turn lanes and then there will be an extended right turn lane that is going to be created after Sande Overpass that will be dedicated to people turning right onto Keith,” he said. When finished, there will be three lanes for traffic running south on the overpass and two for traffic running north. The new traffic pattern and the lights to be installed will also make it safer for pedestrians and allow them to cross on the southern end, said Gunn. Motorists turning left onto the overpass from Keith on the west and motorists wanting to continue along Keith from the east are now regulated by flashing lights, meaning they have to wait until it is safe to proceed.
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MARGARET SPEIRS PHOTO
■■ In his memory CONST. MIKE Buday’s siblings, Frank, Janet and Bob pose with the memorial plaque unveiled in a ceremony at the newly named Constable Mike Buday Park March 19. Buday was shot and killed 30 years ago to the day of the ceremony. For more on him and the ceremony, see page A10.
Thornhill to get sewers By MARGARET SPEIRS AFTER MANY years of planning, the Thornhill sewer project is another step closer to becoming a reality. At its March 20 board meeting, the Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine board voted in favour of amending two bylaws about the sewer system and the financing of it. Costs are estimated at $3.4 million.
Currently, upper and lower Thornhill residents have independent on-site septic systems. That’s excluding homes and businesses on the south side of the Thornhill Creek Bridge and on Churchhill St., which had a sewer system put in after a bylaw was approved in 1994. That bylaw allowed for the expansion of the sewer system as money became available. The Thornhill core
area is this next phase of the sewer system and includes from Thornhill Creek Bridge on Queensway over the CN tracks, up on Substation Road all the way across to the Skeena Landing hotel across the four-way stop, and goes down the Thornhill Frontage Road to Husky next to where the new hotel is being built and across the highway as far as the Chevron station. That area also takes in
the Northern Motor Inn, down Paquette St. and the west side for the community zoned properties. “Thornhill’s been pushing on that (sewer system) probably anywhere from 15 to 20 years,” said regional district Thornhill director Ted Ramsey. “And for Thornhill it’s a key project, absolutely key.” Septic systems mean the land lots have to be bigger and the land
Happy Birthday
Missing women
They did it
Celebrating a 93rd birthday at the Happy Gang Centre \COMMUNITY A10
Documentary Highway of Tears provides a space for emotional discussions \NEWS A5
The Terrace Midget Reps are provincial champions once again \SPORTS A27