Abstract Manager

The South Shore Access Project helped reducing  the marine terminal container traffic congestion. A multi-span overpass (Centennial Road Overpass) for truck vehicles that provides a direct access to the Centerm Container Terminal and separate the major traffic from three at-grade rail crossings was proposed.  The existing road below the proposed overpass was re-purposed to a 1.7 km long local access road connecting to other industrial facilities such as staff parking lots, GCT Vanterm, Alliance Grain Terminal, Heritage Rogers Building, Maintenance Building, Canfisco Seafood facility and etc. 

The design accommodated numerous site constraints and existing infrastructures especially at the Rogers Sugar Building.  The access road (Stewart Street) in front of this Building was restrained to a width for single lane traffic only and also co-existing with a train track.  The road of this segment was designed with automatic road and train signaling systems for bi-directional vehicle traffic and train use independent of each other.  Sensors, traffic light and train gates were implemented to separate traffic for safe passages.  A roundabout was designed at the access road east end to direct traffic from 10 gate entries.  A loop ramp was designed at the mid-length of the road (Centennial Road) to direct terminal arrival truck traffic and local traffic road usage.  Further west, the existing road (East Waterfront Road) was improved and new road was constructed to redirect truck traffic staying within this industrial district and free up space for the commercial and residential community outside of the terminal area in the Vancouver Downtown East Side and East Vancouver.

The South Shore Access Project is one of the key components of the Centerm Expansion Project.  The project increases capacity at Centerm to support Canada’s growing trade demand for goods shipped in containers.  The 1.7 km road and the overpass provide a continuous port road from Canada Place to Highway 1. And, thus these infrastructures reduced travel delays for port users and business.  Emergency road is also constructed for direct first response vehicle access.  Vehicle access control systems and security fence are installed at the east and west entrances, and along the length of this new port road to control access.  Automated monitoring devices and dynamic messaging signs are installed at strategic locations to manage road conditions.  The Centerm Expansion Project received the 2023 Canadian Consulting Engineering Award in the Transportation Category.  This paper is intended to illustrate the objectives and methodology in details.