The District of North Vancouver says that the Iron Workers Memorial Bridge is the most congested span in the Lower Mainland.
According to newly released data on Metro Vancouver traffic, the Second Narrows Bridge carried approximately 130,700 vehicles per day in 2025, the highest volume per lane of all bridges across the region, the district says.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO 1130 NEWSRADIO VANCOUVER LIVE!“We end up with several hours of each day where the entire area is blocked, and people can’t get east and west,” District of North Vancouver Mayor Mike Little told 1130 NewsRadio on Tuesday.
“We are getting trapped by the bridge capacity.”
He says that the bridge serves as a critical regional link but has not received the attention from senior levels of government it deserves, arguing that other infrastructure projects have been prioritized despite increased traffic on the Iron Workers Bridge.
In contrast, other regional crossings have seen decreased or stable volumes.
“We don’t have a replacement plan for the bridge itself, and the province hasn’t committed to anything in that regard, so we are very frustrated.”
“The bridge has been basically overlooked by the province.”
He is now calling on the provincial government to take action and to provide relief to the gridlock that daily commuters find themselves in.
“It has a well-known reputation for falling short for drivers, transit users, and goods movement, and it continues to be overlooked for infrastructure investment,” Little said.
“This bridge is not meeting our needs now, let alone into the future. It is impeding our lives on the North Shore. It’s impeding our businesses from being able to grow because they don’t have that connection to the South Shore and all of the people that are commuting through this space.”
District and province at odds about bridge’s lifespan
He adds that releasing reports like this helps to highlight how much of a bottleneck the bridge is and keeps the issues around it in the spotlight.
One way of doing that, he says, is for residents to talk to their MLAs about the congestion.
“Our MLAs say that they are not getting the attention necessary when they go to their caucus meetings on those issues. So, we want you to tell your home MLA, wherever you’re from, about the challenges.”
Another friction point between the municipal and provincial governments is the lifespan of the bridge.
“Our engineers believe it has got about 20 years of life left,” Little said.
“And the provincial government’s assessment is that there is about 40 years of life left in the structure.”
The Ministry of Transportation and Transit says it knows that people are frustrated with the traffic congestion on the North Shore.
It said in a statement to News1130 that the ministry is undertaking “a high-level planning study of the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge corridor that will help guide future transportation and land use planning in the study area.”
With recent improvements in Lower Lynn, travel is easier for the commuters who use the highway daily, “by improving connectivity and traffic flow within the municipal network and offering expanded transit and active transportation options throughout the area,” it said.
The ministry says it is also continuing to participate in TransLink’s Burrard Inlet Rapid Transit Program (BIRT), which includes planning for Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and which will also consider other rail alternatives to support a future rapid transit connection between Metrotown and the North Shore.
In addition, it said that the expansion of TransLink’s R2 RapidBus from Phibbs Exchange to Metrotown in Burnaby has been expedited with funding from the province. This extension is set to launch in September.
– With files from Dean Recksiedler.