British Columbia Highway 7A

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Highway 7A

Barnet Highway
Barnet Road
Hastings Street
St Johns Street
Inlet Drive
Route information
Maintained by British Columbia Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure
Length25.9 km[1] (16.1 mi)
Existed~1953–1999
Major junctions
West end Hwy 1A / Hwy 99 / Hwy 99A (Georgia Street) in Vancouver
Major intersections Hwy 1 (TCH) in Vancouver
East end Hwy 7 in Coquitlam
Location
CountryCanada
ProvinceBritish Columbia
Major citiesVancouver
Burnaby
Port Moody
Coquitlam
Highway system
← Hwy 7→ Hwy 7B

Highway 7A, known locally and on street signs as the Barnet Highway, Barnet Road, St. Johns Street, Inlet Drive and Hastings Street, was Highway 7's original 1941 route between the harbour in Vancouver and Port Moody. The highway gained the 7A designation around 1953 due to Highway 7 being re-designated along Lougheed Highway through Maillardville and Central Burnaby and was disestablished on April 1, 1999.

Route details

The 26 km (16 mi) long Highway 7A largely followed a parallel route alongside the Canadian Pacific Railway. The highway started off in the west at Seymour Street in Downtown Vancouver, and went 8 km (5.0 mi) along Hastings Street, passing its junction with Highway 1 en route, until it reached Boundary Road, where the highway crossed into Burnaby. Highway 7A continued east along Hastings Street in Burnaby for 5 km (3.1 mi) before turning northeast via Inlet Drive onto Barnet Highway. Once Hastings Street terminates the road narrows from 6 lanes to four, and the speed limit is upped from 50 to 80 km/h (from 31 to 50 mph). Barnet Highway carried Highway 7A on a winding 9 km (5.6 mi) long route on the south shore of Burrard Inlet through Burnaby and into Port Moody, where it meets an intersection with St. John's Street. Highway 7A then travelled 5 km (3.1 mi) east along St. Johns Street to its junctions with Dewdney Trunk Road and Ioco Road, after which it bears the street name Barnet Highway again, before terminating at its junction with Highway 7 in Coquitlam.

History

Historically speaking, the route that Highway 7A took consisted of three distinct roads: the Dewdney Trunk Road, the Barnet Highway and Hastings Street. All of these roads have existed for well over a century. Dewdney Trunk road was once the principal route for traffic north of the Fraser and Hastings Street had been established early on in the history of Vancouver and Burnaby as municipalities. Both Barnet and Dewdney were completed around the turn of the 20th century [2][3][4]

In 1941, a province-wide highway numbering scheme came into effect,[5] with Hastings, Barnet, St. Johns and Dewdney Trunk becoming part of Highway 7.[6] In 1952, Dewdney Trunk lost its highway designation as a new segment of Highway 7 from Shaughnessy Street to today's intersection of St. Johns and Dewdney Trunk Road was completed. This included the building of a new overhead crossing the Canadian Pacific Railway tracks.[7][8]

At some point in the early 1950s (possibly 1953) Highway 7 was rerouted to the newer Lougheed Highway through Maillardville and Central Burnaby. This finally gave Hastings, Barnet Highway and St. Johns Street the Highway 7A designation. During the mid-50s multiple improvements were made along the Barnet Highway section.[9] In 1959, a study conducted by the Technical Committee for Metropolitan Highway Planning suggested the building of a series freeways throughout Vancouver. The committee looked at the possibility of a freeway over Burnaby Mountain which would be a bypass the Barnet over Burnaby Mountain, but ultimately rejected it. [10] Different proposals called for a freeway bypass of Port Moody, a freeway through the Coquitlam Chines and others. None of these plans ever came to fruition.[9]

Barnet Highway remained a two lane highway until the 1990s, when the province began to recognize that congestion was starting to build throughout the overall length of highway 7A. Using the concept of HOV lanes as a means to lessen single occupancy vehicle use and reduce said congestion, the province began to design the Barnet/Hastings People-Mover Project. The project started in 1991 and saw various layouts be considered. However, it was ultimately decided that Hastings would be widened to six lanes and the Barnet highway be finally upgraded into a four-lane facility. The right hand lanes in each direction along the two segments would operate as HOV lanes from 6:00 AM to 8:30 AM towards Vancouver and from 3:30 PM to 6:00 PM towards Port Moody. The improvement also saw the addition of an HOV lane going westbound on St. Johns Street and Clarke St. in Port Moody.[11] The project was completed on September 4, 1996, at a cost of $105 million (equivalent to $161,811,024 in 2020).[12] Counterintuitively, the project led to an increase in travel times on certain stretches of the route.[13]

As part of the creation of TransLink, a major road network was to be created and maintained. The province had also decided to handover hundreds of kilometres of roadways to municipalities throughout the province.[14][15][16] Highway 7A's component routes were a part of the handover, and so on the April 1, 1999, Highway 7A ceased to be.[17][18] [19]

The Burnaby section of this road has been renamed to Barnet Road.

Major intersections

The entire route is in Metro Vancouver Regional District.

Locationkm[1]miDestinationsNotes
Vancouver0.00.0 Howe Street, Seymour Street (Hwy 99 south) – Airport, U.S. border
Georgia Street (Hwy 99 north) – Whistler		Former western terminus; Hwy 7A followed Howe Street and Seymour Street (one-way pair) north; former Hwy 1A / Hwy 99A south
0.50.31Hastings StreetHwy 7A followed Hastings Street
0.60.37Granville StreetGranville Mall (transit only) south of Hastings Street
1.10.68Cambie Street
1.81.1Main Street
3.42.1Clark Drive
3.92.4Commercial Drive
6.74.2 Hwy 1 (TCH) (Cassiar Connector) – Hope, WhistlerHwy 1 passes underneath Hastings Street via the Cassiar Tunnel; Hwy 1 exit 26
Burnaby12.88.0Hastings Street (to Burnaby Mountain Parkway) – Simon Fraser UniversityRenamed "Barnet Road"
Port Moody23.514.6Dewdney Trunk Road
Coquitlam25.916.1 Hwy 7 (Lougheed Highway) / Pinetree Way – Port CoquitlamFormer eastern terminus; continues as Hwy 7 east
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

References

  1. ^ a b Google (September 16, 2021). "British Columbia Highway 7A" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved September 16, 2021.
  2. ^ Government of British Columbia (1905). ESTIMATE OF REVENUE AND RECEIPTS OF THE PROVINCE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA, FOR THE Financial Year ending 30th June, 1905 (Report). British Columbia Queen's Printer. p. 32. J110.L5 S7; 1904_05_D1_D33. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
  3. ^ Government of British Columbia (1904). REPORT OF THE CHIEF COMMISSIONER OF LANDS AND WORKS OF THE PROVINCE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING 30TH JUNE, 1903 (Report). British Columbia Queen's Printer. pp. 30, 36. J110.L5 S7; 1904_06_E1_E148. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
  4. ^ Government of British Columbia (1904). 1902-1903 (NO.1). SUPPLEMENTARY ESTIMATES OF EXPENDITURE OF THE PROVINCE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING 30TH JUNE, 1903 (Report). British Columbia Queen's Printer. p. 2. J110.L5 S7; 1902_56_1439_1440. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
  5. ^ British Columbia Department of Public Works (September 12, 1941). Report of the Minister of Public Works for the Fiscal Year 1939/1940 (Report). Victoria: Government of British Columbia. doi:10.14288/1.0314091. J110.L5 S7; 1940_V02_04_P1_P125. Retrieved November 23, 2021.
  6. ^ Shell Oil Company (1951). "Shell Street Map of Vancouver. 10-Y-1951-1." (Map). Shell Map of Vancouver and Victoria, B.C. (Vancouver side). 1:50688. 183. Shell Oil Company.
  7. ^ British Columbia Ministry of Public Works (1953). Report of the Minister of Public Works for the Fiscal Year 1951-52 (Report). Victoria: Government of British Columbia. pp. 38, 205. doi:10.14288/1.0348086. J110.L5 S7; 1953_V02_06_P1_P214. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
  8. ^ Staff Writer (December 20, 1951). "Lougheed Bridge Opens in January". Vancouver Daily Province. Victoria: Vancouver Daily Province. Retrieved November 19, 2022 – via proquest.com.
  9. ^ a b Elder, Brian W. (1992). Land use and transportation planning: The Greater Vancouver Regional District North East Sector: 1951- 1990 (Thesis). University of British Columbia. doi:10.14288/1.0098810.
  10. ^ Technical Committee for Metropolitan Highway Planning (March 13, 1959). A Study on Highway Planning for Metropolitan Vancouver - British Columbia - Freeways with Rapid Transit (Report). Vol. 2.
  11. ^ Delcan Corp (March 1994). Barnet/Hastings People-Moving Project (Report). Vol. I–V. B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Highways.
  12. ^ Government of British Columbia (September 4, 1996). "MAJOR PROJECT TURNS BARNET/HASTINGS INTO PEOPLE-MOVING EXPRESS ROUTE". Vancouver. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
  13. ^ Bracewell, Dale J. (1998). High occupancy vehicle monitoring and evaluation framework (Thesis). U.B.C. doi:10.14288/1.0063791.
  14. ^ Government of British Columbia (December 22, 1996). "PROVINCE TO MAINTAIN ARTERIAL ROADS UNTIL APRIL". Vancouver. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
  15. ^ Government of British Columbia (January 23, 1997). "DEVOLUTION OF ARTERIAL HIGHWAYS DEFERRED TO 1998". Vancouver. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
  16. ^ Government of British Columbia (June 19, 1998). "GROUNDBREAKING ACT TO IMPROVE TRANSPORTATION SERVICES IN GREATER VANCOUVER - MACPHAIL". Vancouver. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
  17. ^ "Transportation Act, RSBC 1996". Article Part 4, Div. 6, Section 56 (1)(C), Act of 2022.
  18. ^ "South Coast Transportation Authority Act, RSBC 1996". Article Part 2, Section 18, Act of 1996.
  19. ^ "Greater Vancouver Regional Transportation Authority Major Road Network Bylaw No. 1, 1998.". of March 20, 1998 (PDF).

External links

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