Being that I work in the area near Southeast False Creek[wiki], my daily commute takes me through the heart of the Canada Line construction. Anyone who has seen that area on even a somewhat regular basis will tell you that it is a pain. Whether you are going on foot, transit, or your personal vehicle, you have to have patience to get through it all. That or wish for some good luck.
In the last couple of weeks, things are starting to resemble something normal again. There is a large amount of the streets being black topped, bus stops are shuffling a little bit, and there are more forms being put in place to build street curbs.
This is a big deal to me because there have been intersections that seemed to be dug up, work done, covered back up with black top, and the process repeats itself about three more times, in the exact same spots. The heavy machines come in and out to bust things up and repair it, almost like they are doing it for fun. Curbs seem to symbolize that something more permanent is on the horizon.
It just doesn’t stop with the Canada Line though. There are more condos and stores being developed in the same vicinity, so the extra trucks getting through the already congested and rerouted traffic is hopelessly frustrating. You know it’s going to be over soon, so there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Oh yeah, and there is also that Olympic village being built. Can’t forget all those workers flooding the area along with their trucks and equipment.
Even the Wendy’s in the area just shut down to renovate, and Subway is setting up shop next to a new RBC bank just around the corner. There’s already a second Starbucks in six months in the area between Broadway and the bridge, plus a coming London Drug and Whole Foods on the same stretch of street.
The area of the Olympic village is also slated to get a London Drug and Urban Fare, but I can’t be sure on those time lines being before or after the Olympics.
It looks like I’m not the only one getting anxious for Cambie Street to come back, but the most important thing for me is getting the transit system free of construction traffic. There’s nothing worse than feeling like your running way ahead of schedule to get to work and end up stuck on the bridge for 25 minutes while you creep slowly to the only stop on the other side at Broadway.
I wrote about Cambie being open for business a few weeks ago, although the part that I highlighted was south of 16th Avenue. You, Rebecca and myself (and perhaps a bunch of other geeks) should go to Mount Pleasant Cheese and/or Trixi’s. Great places.
I’m really happy that Cambie is starting to regain some of its beauty and that the businesses survived. Great entry John.
I commute across West 12th and Cambie a few times a week and it is nice to see a road being built over the tunnels that were/are there. Though now there is work going on various parts of of West 12th between Main and Burrard now but I’m slowly getting use to it.
It will be nice when they get the Cambie section completed. I typically avoid Cambie during the day but it would be my quickest way out of Vancouver. Sometimes in the morning I use it and sometimes late at night I might use it, but avoid it like the plague during the day.
Once again, I’m grateful to folks like you, Beck, and Raul for providing updates like these for former homers like me who live half-the-world away. Muchas gracias!