As work gets underway atop the Front Street parkade, the city is turning its attention to what will take place on the road below.

After crews finish refurbishing the eastern side of the parkade, they’ll get to work deconstructing the western side of the parking structure. Once that part of the parkade is gone, the City of New Westminster will create the Front Street Mews, a pedestrian friendly area in front of the retailers in this section of Front Street.

article continues below

The city hired PWL Partnership to develop design concepts for the mews on Front Street frontage road, between Begbie and Sixth Streets. Community members will have a chance to view and comment on the two concepts at an open house taking place on Thursday, June 18 from 5 to 7 p.m. at Anvil Centre.

“At this point there has been two options that have been designed so far, with different configurations,” said Mayor Jonathan Cote. “Really, the goal of the city is, once the parkade is removed, how do we create a more pedestrian -friendly environment at that location that is obviously next to some difficult transportation corridors.”

Cote encourages residents and businesses to offer input into the process to ensure the city creates a place where people want to be.

“One of the options has a meandering road, which has the positive impact of slowing down traffic and creating a little bit of a different road environment there. The downside of that option is the parked cars are right along the sidewalk in a section of that scheme,” Cote said. “The other scheme has all of the parking at the back end, at the end of the mews. The thinking was the parked cars would provide even a further barrier to both the trains and the other portion of Front Street.”

A staff report states that both options include locating the truck corridor closer to the existing railway tracks in order to maximize the pedestrian realm, provide a sufficient number of at-grade parking stalls and provide a generous buffer/noise attenuation wall between Front Street and the mews.

“It is anticipated that construction of the mews would commence immediately after the parkade demolition has been completed in order to minimize the overall time that Front Street is closed to traffic,” said a staff report. “A traffic management plan will be prepared in accordance with the city’s good neighbour policy to ensure that access and traffic impacts are minimized to the extent possible.”

According to a staff report, the Front Street Mews project is estimated to cost $2 million and will be funded from the city’s transportation capital budget. While doing the work to create a mews, the city will replace an 80-year-old steel water main, which is estimated to cost $146,000 and would be funded through the city’s water utility budget.