Progress
The Chilliwack
Wednesday
9
Scene
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15
News
Sports
Party
Bridge
Racing
PITP kicks off with The Fever.
The case for a two-lane bridge.
Rotax Can-Am Karting Challenge.
Y O U R C O M M U N I T Y N E W S PA P E R • F O U N D E D I N 1 8 9 1 • W W W. T H E P R O G R E S S . C O M • W E D N E S D AY, J U LY 1 5 , 2 0 1 5
Air crew honoured with new memorial Jessica Peters The Progress
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Mayor Sharon Gaetz called the Vedder Bridge ‘an important transportation link’ for Chilliwack and beyond. Now it’s set to be replaced by 2018 at a cost of $12.5 million with the help of senior government funding partners. JENNIFER FEINBERG/ PROGRESS
Funds in place for a new Vedder Bridge Jennifer Feinberg The Progress A new Vedder Bridge has been at the top of Chilliwack’s wishlist for years. A perennial choke point between Chilliwack and Cultus Lake, the infrastructure project received the long-awaited funding Friday. The $12.5 million bridge project will see the existing two-lane structure replaced with a two-lane steel plate girder bridge, with shoulders and multi-use pathways, and a single-lane roundabout at Vedder and Chilliwack Lake Road. Construction is expected to start in 2016, with completion set for the fall of 2018. “It’s a huge project,” said Chilliwack Mayor Sharon Gaetz. “But in the meantime, the important thing for people to know is
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there won’t be any disruption to traffic because this bridge will remain (during construction).” Eventually the old bridge will have to come down, she noted, since it won’t have clearance to withstand a one-in-200 year flood incident. Mayor Gaetz was joined at the podium for the funding announcement by Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon MP Mark Strahl, along with MLAs Laurie Throness for Chilliwack-Hope and John Martin for Chilliwack. “I would like to extend our gratitude on behalf of Chilliwack city council for federal and provincial funding through the New Building Canada Fund. Without this funding, it would not be possible to replace the Vedder Bridge, which serves as an important transportation link for Chilliwack and surrounding areas,”
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said Gaetz. The bridge replacement is something not only Chilliwack has been pushing for but also residents of surrounding communities, the Fraser Valley Regional District and nearby electoral areas. “It’s a great news story,” underlined MP Strahl. “It took all of us pulling together to get this on the radar of our various ministers.” The pressing need for a new bridge did not go unnoticed. “The federal investment in this project is the biggest investment in the Small Communities fund in the entire province,” said Strahl, adding his congratulations to the city. “I know this was the number one infrastructure ask for the City of Chilliwack and I’m so pleased,” he said. There was “an incredible amount of work behind the scenes” to pull
off a green light for the bridge replacement, MLA John Martin also noted. “There were a few points in time where we just weren’t sure if we were going to get to the finish line,” he said. The new bridge will improve traffic flow and help ensure safer commuting over the river. “This is going to be one of the initiatives that is going to keep British Columbia and Chilliwack moving. It will be a safer and more efficient route on the new Vedder Bridge,” said Chilliwack MLA John Martin. Chilliwack-Hope MLA Laurie Throness described the old Bailey bridge as one built for war time use as a “temporary structure” or stopgap measure. “But now we’re going to replace it with a permanent structure, and I Continued: BRIDGE/ p4
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A 70-year-old war story is being retold this week, in an effort to memorialize 11 men who died in the Cheam mountain range. For those who know local aviation history, the tale is a familiar one. A crew of 11 Royal Air Force airmen stationed in Abbotsford awoke early on June 1, 1945 to hear their dispatch for the day. They were to take a navigation training flight from the Abbotsford base, fly to Penticton, turn and head to Revelstoke, and return to Abbotsford — a 509-mile exercise. The war in Europe had just ended, and at least one of the men had written home about his desire to return to England. “I’m only living for the day I can get out of this and do as I please for a change,” RAF volunteer James Gordon Hammond, 20, wrote to his parents. “In about a month from now I shall know whether I am coming home first. It would be just my luck not to.” The crew left the Abbotsford base just after 9 a.m., heading into a partly cloudy sky. The flight was under the command of Flying Officer William D.A. Hill. The Second Pilot was Pilot Officer Gilbert, and the Navigator was Sergeant Graham Murray. About 30 minutes into the flight, the crew’s B-24 Liberator bomber KK241 lost radio contact. When they crashed into a mountaintop, it marked the largest single loss of life in British Columbia during the war. The ensuing search for the plane was long and arduous, hampered by consistent cloud cover and rainy weather.