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16-529: Three road bridges have existed before the modern bridges' construction The first bridge was completed in 1915 and opened either on 1st or 3rd of March. It cost $ 800,000 (equivalent to $ 20,078,688.52 in 2022) Before its construction, traffic utilized a government subsidized ferry which had started its operation on 27 September 1902. The second span, a highway bridge was opened on 21 October, 1957 by Premier W. A. C. Bennett and cost $ 1,050,000 (equivalent $ 10,861,824.32 in 2022 dollars). The third (northern) span

32-745: A Canadian politician. Fraser began his career as a businessman in the central British Columbia town of Quesnel , located in the Cariboo region. During World War II , he enlisted and served in the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps in British Columbia and Ontario from 1942 until his discharge in March 1946. Fraser came from a political family. His father, John, served in both the provincial legislature and federal parliament . Fraser himself began his own political career in 1949, when he

48-431: A reversible lane, and had a maximum speed limit of 90 kilometres per hour (56 mph) until July 24, 2019, when the speed limit was lowered to 70 kilometres per hour (43 mph) to accommodate the additional reversible lane. Upon opening in 1986, only four of the six available lanes were open. Cyclists and pedestrians share two narrow sidewalks one on each side. All six lanes opened in 1987 after traffic demand justified

64-586: Is also named for him. Alex Fraser Bridge The Alex Fraser Bridge (also known as the Annacis Bridge ) is a cable-stayed bridge over the Fraser River that connects Richmond and New Westminster with North Delta in Greater Vancouver , British Columbia. The bridge is named for Alex Fraser , a former British Columbia Minister of Transportation. The bridge was the longest cable-stayed bridge in

80-536: The Fraser River (the river named for the explorer, Simon Fraser , and not the politician) is named in his honour. Part of Highway 91 , the bridge links the municipalities of Richmond and Delta . The Alex Fraser Research Forest was created in 1987, and named in his honour. The Research Forest is operated by the University of British Columbia Faculty of Forestry, and is located east of Williams Lake. A park in Quesnel

96-695: The Massey Tunnel 's system, the system directed three lanes towards Vancouver in the morning from 6 AM until 8:30 AM, and likewise from 3:30 PM until 6:00 PM towards Maple Ridge . The original bridges were replaced with a cable-stayed bridge and a free-flowing interchange to replace the Mary-Hill Bypass–Lougheed intersection. On October 4, 2009, four lanes of the new bridge opened to general traffic, soon expanding to three lanes for westbound traffic and four for eastbound traffic. The new span has been engineered to allow for different lane allocations in

112-446: The cables to prevent it from accumulating and falling onto the cars below. An announcement was made on January 19, 2017, that a new seventh travel lane would be added on the bridge by slightly narrowing the existing lanes and removing the shoulders. A reversible lane system with a movable barrier was added to help ease traffic during morning and afternoon rush hours . The new seventh lane opened to traffic on September 14, 2019, with

128-399: The future, including an 8th lane and possible rapid transit. It also allows for up to 16 meters of vertical clearance for marine traffic. The new bridge structure was built between the two earlier bridges, which were subsequently demolished; all demolition was completed on November 22, 2010. [1] Alex Fraser (politician) Alexander Vaughan Fraser (June 22, 1916 – May 9, 1989) was

144-676: The need. The bridge's southern end is in North Delta and its northern end is on Delta 's Annacis Island . Connections on its southern end lead to White Rock and the Canada–United States border at the Peace Arch border crossing . The connections on the northern end lead into the cities of New Westminster, Richmond, and Burnaby , and on into Vancouver itself. It is a major artery in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. The bridge

160-609: The sides of the driving lanes, whereas on the Port Mann, they cross over top of the driving lanes. In addition to 2016, this also happened on the Alex Fraser in 2005, 2008, and 2012. The Alex Fraser needed to be closed a few times during December 2016 due to the possibility of ice bombs; this caused major traffic problems in the region. To combat this issue, the BC government announced that a heavy lift helicopter will be used to blow snow and ice off

176-534: The world when it opened on September 22, 1986, and was the longest in North America until the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge , in the U.S. state of South Carolina , opened in 2005. The Alex Fraser Bridge is 2,525 metres (8,284 ft) long with a main span of 465 metres (1,526 ft). The towers are 154 metres (505 ft) tall. It consists of seven lanes, three in each direction with the middle lane acting as

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192-415: Was built in the 1978 at cost of $ 2.8 million dollars (equivalent to $ 11,554,716.98 in 2022) and was opened on 1 August by Highways Minister Alex Fraser . It was located to the north of the 1957 bridge. The mid-swing span of the south span sometimes did not seat properly in the closed position, becoming stuck and causing very long traffic line-ups (especially before the north span was built), but this problem

208-555: Was constructed for the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation and was designed by a joint venture of Klohn Crippen Berger and Buckland & Taylor (now COWI North America). Its total cost was $ 58 million. In December 2016, "ice bombs" (also called "slush bombs") dropped from the Alex Fraser Bridge and the nearby Port Mann Bridge onto vehicles, causing damage to windshields. The Alex Fraser has its cables along

224-501: Was diagnosed with throat cancer . He lost his voice after surgery in June, but ran in the election that same year. Eventually his throat cancer forced him to resign a few months before his death. Fraser was a prominent member of the cabinets of Premiers Bill Bennett and Bill Vander Zalm , serving as the province's Minister of Transportation and Highways a cumulative total of eleven years between 1975 and 1986. The Alex Fraser Bridge over

240-640: Was elected as commissioner of Quesnel. In 1950 Fraser was elected reeve (later mayor ) of Quesnel, a position he held for the next twenty years. During that time he served both as president of the Union of B.C. Municipalities and chairman of the Cariboo Regional District . Fraser moved from local to provincial politics in 1969, winning the Cariboo riding for the British Columbia Social Credit Party . In 1986, Fraser became ill and

256-430: Was fixed many years ago. The control house also operated the lane control system after the system became operational. Each of the two spans had two lanes. In 1997 a counterflow system was installed, being completed on the 10th of October. During the morning and evening commute times, the system would reverse a lane on one of the two bridges so that three lanes of traffic were operational in a single direction. In vogue with

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