The Province
By Brian Lewis
Council's priorities seem to favour truck traffic over safety, sense
Whatever the trucking industry wants in Delta, the trucking industry gets.
At least that's how the community's two MLAs see it after Delta's municipal council quietly slipped through approval late this summer for Maersk Distribution, a division of one of the world's largest shipping corporations, to launch a six-month pilot project utilizing extra-long trucking units — each about 30.5-metres long — to run from Deltaport's container terminal to its centre on River Road.
These extended-length, super B-trains are about five-metres longer than conventional big rigs and consist of a diesel-powered tractor and two trailers.
But, before they rumble over Delta roads, additional permits must be issued and, most importantly, the Corporation of Delta's engineering department must complete widening of some intersections to accommodate the extended rigs' wider turning requirements.
In the meantime, Vicki Huntington, the independent MLA for Delta South, and Guy Gentner, the NDP MLA for Delta North, are raising safety issues.
"My main concern is that we already have an unsafe situation with regular container trucks in Delta, especially in arterial and commuter areas like Highway 17 and River Road, where these extended trucks will be running," says Huntington.
She's making a valid point.
Anyone who lives or regularly drives in Delta will be familiar with the container-truck problem. It's not uncommon to see an 18-wheeler flipped over on its side on a curved freeway approach, for example, because the driver took the turn too quickly or there was a mechanical or technical failure.
This potentially lethal mix of container trucks running on deadline and ordinary traffic can be especially precarious within the vicinity of Highway 17 and Ladner Trunk Road.
Random roadside safety checks of the trucking sector by Delta police consistently show very poor results — the usual outcome is about two out of every five trucks tested failing to pass.
"States like California have not endorsed these truck-trains but instead they've encouraged more use of rail to move goods," Gentner says.
"We should be doing the same thing here, but in Delta it just seems like our shipping policies are being dictated by global corporate interests. And if Maersk gets approval to use these extended-length trucks today, then Cosco or some other major shipping company will want the same thing in Delta tomorrow," he adds.
However, Delta and the trucking industry view the issue differently.
"It makes more environmental and economic sense if you can move two containers with one truck so that the amount of diesel-particulate emissions and traffic will both be reduced," says Robert Campbell, a Delta councillor who is acting mayor while Lois Jackson is on a trade tour of India.
"These are the kinds of considerations our council looked at when the pilot-project decision was made last August," he says.
Regardless, neither Huntington nor Gentner agree.
"Any environmental or traffic reductions are minimal," Gentner says.
"The trucking industry seems to win every battle it fights in Delta," Huntington says. "It's time this industry started thinking about the people it impacts."
That would be refreshing.
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