Burnaby city council voted unanimously to firmly oppose FortisBC building five kilometres of gas pipeline through the city.
B.C.’s Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure is set to replace the Pattullo Bridge, which spans the Fraser River between Surrey and New Westminster, by 2023. That means FortisBC must consider how it will reconnect a gas line that feeds 35,000 homes, including 18,000 in Burnaby.
“However, all the overland options that avoid a crossing of the Fraser River near the location of the Pattullo Bridge greatly impact Burnaby,” reads a staff report to council. “The option with least impact would be to replace the existing gas line on the Pattullo Bridge with a new gas line on the new bridge.”
According to the staff report, FortisBC is in favour of attaching the new connection to the new bridge, which would localize all construction to the area around the bridge. But FortisBC has not been able to get an exemption from the ministry’s design standards for the new bridge, which do not allow for a gas line to be attached, according to staff.
With that in mind, FortisBC is recommending connecting the line to an underground facility at the intersection of Newcombe Street and 17th Avenue. That would require five kilometres of underground work from Forest Grove Drive, along Gaglardi Way and Cariboo Road, across Highway 1 and along 16th Avenue.
Coun. Colleen Jordan said she was “incredulous,” when considering the replacement, “that these kinds of things aren’t taken into consideration.”
“I think Fortis told us it was 100-and-some million dollars, at least, was going to be the price tag,” Jordan said.
“It doesn’t seem to me that it would be impossible to find a way to deliver the gas as it is being delivered now, through some safe, viable way of attaching the gas line to the new bridge.”
Coun. Sav Dhaliwal and Coun. Pietro Calendino railed against FortisBC for what they saw as a failure by the gas company to adequately work with the city in finalizing its route recommendations.
“I also have some issue with Fortis not working with the staff to the point before they went to the public to say this is the route they prefer,” Dhaliwal said. “I thought at least there should have been a lot of dialogue between our staff and Fortis to say, ‘Would this route be OK with Burnaby?’ They would have gotten this feedback.”
He also noted how busy the Gaglardi and Cariboo routes are for the morning and evening commutes, and the potential disruption from pipeline construction.
Director of engineering Leon Gous noted that, after a workshop with council on the matter, he followed up on the matter with council with a memo rather than holding another workshop. He said that was because Fortis had indicated another council workshop would have little to no effect, in large part because of the urgency in approving a route.
Gous said he felt the city has been firm in its opposition, adding staff’s main issue was that Fortis had spent 18 months considering options around the bridge site before deciding it was not viable.
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