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26 2015
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Slide the City event makes a splash
Thousands turn out for water slide, Car Free fest MARIA SPITALE-LEISK mspitale-leisk@nsnews.com
Six thousand thrill-seekers legally sped down three blocks of Lonsdale Avenue in inner tubes Saturday for the first-ever massive slip-and-slide event to hit B.C.’s south coast. By all accounts, Slide the City and Car Free Day on Aug. 22 made a giant splash with locals and visitors alike, as well as businesses in the Lower Lonsdale area that benefited from the extra exposure and foot traffic. The main attraction was clearly the 1,000-foot (300 metre) slip-and-slide, which stretched from Keith Road near Victoria Park to Fourth Street. A crowd gathered around the large landing pool to critique each slider’s splash at the end. Excited riders, most of whom secured their chance to slide down a steep section of North Van’s famous arterial road months ago, started lining up just before 9 a.m. Saturday for the sold-out event. A family from Langley was among those waiting in line, eagerly anticipating their first slide of the day. “I booked it in March; I was like, ‘Hell, yeah,’ ” said Tara Payne. By early afternoon adrenaline was running high. “I actually hurt my vocal cords,” said 15-year-old Carson Graham secondary student Jude Tear, of the jubilant screaming he did on the slide.
< *W-UQ 8Z 2SU)[32 R-)[ - 26S-2W 8Q b8Q2)-S[ </[Q0[' E-103)-_' )03UQY ESU)[ 1W[ :U1_' .WU*W )3[. R83[ 1W-Q M'""" 6[86S[ Z38R -380Q) 1W[ b8.[3 a-UQS-Q)% $!2!1 323'/2-,85 18 0!'/ 0!*'8 .3* 584' 7"8182- \f^D^ LISA KING The three-lane slide course even had a hurdle that tried its best to steal the infamous Lions Gate Bridge bump’s thunder. “There is a bump in the middle and you are not sure if you are going to bail,” reported slider Kelly Gemini. Meanwhile, father and daughter duo Leslie Connor, 55, and Danielle, 21, were amused by the fact the See Riders page 3
Lions Gate Bridge bump gone — for now BRENT RICHTER brichter@nsnews.com
The much-maligned Lions Gate Bridge bump has itself been bumped — at least for a while. Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure crews spent nine hours overnight Sunday removing 4.5-centimetrethick welded metal plates
that were blamed for causing traffic chaos for North Shore commuters last week. “The bridge is back to normal,” said Norm Parkes, executive director of highway operations for the ministry. “Pieces for (maintenance) of the joint were delayed and we decided, rather than just leave the bump there and not do any work, we took the bump away.”
The brightest lights.
The joint at the north end of the bridge had similar work done in January this year.The plate was an annoyance but didn’t result in the same problems as the one at the south end, Parkes said. “We didn’t think it would be as impactful as it was. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have done it,” he said. There is no timeline for
when work on the south joint will restart, but Parkes said the engineers have gone back to the drawing board to come up with something better than the dreaded bump. “We’ve tasked our engineers with doing exactly that – figuring out what an alternate cover will look like, and when is an optimal time to do the work” Parkes said.
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