There would be a significant cost to designate Bailey Street as public crossing and it’s unlikely District would apply to Transport Canada for such an approval, though the District has kept this option open for future.
Responding to a local resident, District officials said any future public use of Bailey Street would require designing the crossings with CN Railways, which would require an application to Transport Canada for approval.
“There would be significant costs to meet Transport Canada standards,” District says. “This is estimated to be several hundred thousand dollars for basic crossings. The costs escalate substantially if items such as automatic barriers are needed. The District does not consider this a cost-effective solution in the short-term since emergency access is maintained, but this could be considered in the future.”
Last year, the District installed gates on the gravel section of Bailey Street and closed the road except for emergency purposes. Bailey Street was closed to fulfill a long-standing agreement with CN Railways dating back to 1979 that allowed the District to use Bailey Street as an emergency access route.
The agreement required that the two rail crossings be gated to allow for emergency traffic only. The condition to gate the railway crossings had not been met since the original agreement was signed. Due to noticeable deterioration of the rail crossings from increased public use, the gates were required by the historical agreement, District says.
In the event of an emergency, the gates can be opened. All emergency service responders have keys to be able to use the road as needed.
The District says it recognizes the community’s concern about a second access to the downtown area, and it’s working with BC Ministry of Transportation. A second access is planned from the new Clarke Drive intersection off Highway 99, which will extend along Laurelwood Road to a Pemberton Avenue bridge.
jeff mckenzie says
why not reopen the Buckley avenue crossing that was there for 80 yrs before being closed off in the late 1990s. It would connect nicely to 3rd avenue behind SaveOn Foods and add an access point to downtown. I know it would be hard to move the railway in that direction – but it would be a really good thing for the Town of Squamish and good for the residents by relieving the pressure on the cleveland avenue entrance to town.
Chris says
Yup, the “District” can waste at least 10 million dollars rerouting traffic on Government Rd. away from one small neighbourhood in North Yards, and throw away upwards of a million dollars to “fix” the block of Garibaldi Way from Highway 99 to Tantalus Rd and make it worse than it is now, but they can’t see their way to spend several hundred thousand dollars per two crossings to provide a safe second entrance into town. That 1979 agreement was negotiated with BC Rail when the railway was a lot busier than it is now. It’s time to negotiate a new agreement!
Steve says
What a great comment they seemed to have overlooked this opportunity many times.