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Paving the way
Seafairs join Canadians
The city is paving the way for cyclists in Richmond with the building of two new bike lanes in Richmond’s city centre area to the tune of $400,000.
Four of Seafair’s outstanding 1996 hockey players join the Greater Vancouver Canadians when they open the B.C. Major Midget Hockey League this weekend.
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Distracted driver month proclaimed BY YVONNE ROBERTSON Special to the News
Mayor Malcolm Brodie takes the wheel, left hand steering. His face squeezed in concentration as he tries to focus on the road ahead while entering numbers given to him by an instructor into a calculator in his right hand — as if he were texting. He swerves haphazardly to the left, then the right. The three flatscreens in front of him are connected to a Playstation to simulate a city street. The driving simulator, parked in the front lobby of city hall allows people to experience first hand the impact of driver distractions. At the end of the ride, drivers are shown how they did. “It was a real eye opener,” said
Brodie after his turn behind the wheel. “The instructor was giving me random numbers to put in the calculator while driving. To see how far off I went was quite graphic.” Just moment earlier, Brodie had proclaimed September distracted driving month. The City of Richmond, ICBC, WorkSafeBC and police teamed up to raise awareness and illustrate the dangers of distracted driving at city hall, Thursday morning. Twenty five per cent of all motor vehicle accidents in B.C. can be attributed to distracted driving, said to Brodie. WorkSafeBC statistics list car crashes as the number one cause of work-related deaths in the province. “30 workers are killed every see Calls page 4
YVONNE ROBERTSON/RICHMOND NEWS
Mayor Malcolm Brodie stepped into the driver’s seat on Thursday to put himself through a distraction test as part of an ICBC and WorkSafe BC initiative to make motorists more aware of the risks they run on the road.
CITY
New provincial dyke standards to hurt Richmond budget Postmedia News
New provincial design standards for dykes meant to provide protection against earthquakes and prepare for rising sea levels could cost Lower Mainland municipalities hundreds of millions of dollars. Municipalities say if the province is going to establish new design guidelines for dykes — which protect billions of dollars in infrastructure — it needs to provide money to help make the required improvements. The City of Richmond has already estimated the new dyke design standards will cost $180 million — $100 million to account for higher sea levels and $80 mil$
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lion to improve the dykes’ ability to withstand earthquakes. Richmond’s director of engineering John Irving said even though the expense could be spread over a number of decades, it is difficult to plan for the improvements without dedicated funding. “It’s additional cost the province has created without additional funding,’’ he said. Richmond, Delta and Chilliwack account for nearly half of the 330 kilometres of high-risk dykes to which the new earthquake rules apply. Dykes are considered high risk — or “high consequence’’ — when they protect urbanized areas. Chilliwack alone has estimated its 50 kilometres of dykes protect $2 billion in property and infrastructure.
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The province is not ordering municipalities to make upgrades immediately to meet the new standards. Instead, the improvements will be required only as new dykes are built, or dykes are upgraded. The new earthquake standards released last month allow dykes to be upgraded in a number of ways, for example, by widening or compacting the base with methods that include pile driving and injecting mortar into the soil. Dykes would need to be raised to account for expected rises in sea levels from climate change, outlined in new guidelines released in the first half of the year. Neil Peters, the province’s inspector of dykes, said there is no new funding tied to the new standards.
“At least at this point, the guidelines process is separate from any infrastructurefunding process,’’ said Peters, who is also head of flood safety for the province. He likened the new dyke standards to upgrading the building code. “It doesn’t mean that somebody building an apartment gets money to comply with the new code,’’ he said. Although Delta has not produced cost estimates, deputy director of engineering Hugh Fraser said the new standards would cost “very large dollars. ‘’ Fraser noted the provincial and federal governments are putting significant investments into the Lower Mainland to develop its ports and other infrastructure to tap into see Gateway page 4
8171 Westminster Hwy. (at Buswell, one block east of No. 3 Rd.) Walkway access also from Save-On Foods parking lot
Mon-Sat 8:45-6:30 Sun 10-5 (604) 780-4959
09143553
BY GORDON HOEKSTRA