Vancouver business owners have been confused and frustrated, without knowing when the area around Main Street and Broadway would be closed for further construction of the Broadway Subway Project until late Friday morning.
A provincial statement, dated Jan. 9, finally confirmed that the closure will begin Monday, Jan. 26 at 7 a.m. But the government had failed to firm up the timeline for weeks, leaving owners, their customers, and drivers in the dark.
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Neil Wyles is the executive director of the Mount Pleasant BIA (MPBIA). He told 1130 NewsRadio he was as lost as everyone else.
“It reflects the haphazard way in which this was all just slapped together. It’s not surprising they don’t have a date yet, or are not announcing a date. Their lack of communication around this closure has been appalling,” said Wyles.
“They’re building the plane as they’re flying it.”
The shutdown will allow crews to remove the traffic deck and rebuild the road above what will eventually be the Mount Pleasant Station. Sidewalks will remain open.
Wyles adds that waiting in the wings for the date did not help business owners who couldn’t plan ahead for their establishments without concrete details.
“There is some tension. These businesses have experienced some severe disruptions for the last five years. We do want to remind people this closure isn’t just a short-term thing. This is, as far as we’re concerned, an unplanned closure, slapped together, and it’s causing a lot of anxiety with my members. They don’t know any more than we do. They can see some lines painted on the road, but details have been a little light. I would say they’re building the plane as they’re flying it. It’s causing a lot of stress.”
He says some businesses might not stay open through the next four months.
“The closure at Main and Broadway will be shut for four months, once they pull the trigger. And they say four months but… I’m taking that with a grain of salt. This four-month closure will be followed by another four-month closure at the Cambie [Street] side of it. It is a rolling closure. It will close for four months at Cambie, then it will close for four months at Granville [Street]. So, these businesses are going to see pretty much a disruption to the traffic flow along Broadway for the best part of a year.”
Wyles adds that the detours may cause bigger headaches for some.
“Because we have so much traffic-calming, so many no-rights, no-lefts, you can’t get through bike routes, so on and so forth, the detours even for the most dedicated customers are going to be very significant. We feel the customers are not going to make those detours. I think the first detour [at Main and Broadway] would be 14 blocks to get around it, unless you’re doing a rat-run in the laneways.”
Last month, community officials held a town hall meeting to discuss the closure and other issues. Wyles says the Minister of Transportation, Mike Farnworth, never showed up.
“Nobody from the province, nobody from the jobs and transportation ministries bothered to attend. That would have been a good opportunity for them to come and meet these folks and feel this anxiety. I would challenge [Farnworth] that washing our windows once a month of construction dust does not balance out for Fable Diner the half-a-million dollars in losses that business has experienced. The minister [of transportation] in particular, has not been responsive to anything.”
Wyles understands some may not fully grasp the severity of this closure until it happens.
“Broadway is such a major east-west connector in this city, and their plan is to divert traffic either to 12th Avenue or to 7th — both of which are already jammed. So, are we driving these customers farther and farther away from these businesses, continuing to add to the stress? And there’s no relief. The rent comes due on the first of the month, your property taxes, all of the bills… and there’s been no help. One of our business owners said, ‘I’m not looking for a handout, I’m looking for some help to get to the other side of this.’”
Some in the association have recommended that the province offer an interest-free loan to compensate for the two-year delay to the project’s completion date.
Wyles says the idea that businesses along the new line will reap the benefits when the subway is active is short-sighted, admitting that many won’t survive to that time.
“We’re seeing businesses close all the time. I think our vacancy rate in between Cambie and Main has exceeded 50 per cent, and they leave with maxed-out lines of credit and additional mortgages on their house. One of the small business owners asked me, ‘What’s the difference between personal bankruptcy and business bankruptcy?’ I think our Ministry of Transportation don’t realize that, and don’t appreciate that, and they’ve been steadfast in their position that, ‘We are not going to do anything to help.’”
The project has been delayed multiple times and has blown through its budget by at least $127 million. The subway is expected to open sometime in 2027.
In a written statement, the Ministry of Transportation and Transit says that buses and local traffic will be detoured around the one-block vehicle closure using East 8th Avenue.
“The project team is working with businesses to ensure loading zones are available and are discussing additional mitigation measures to be put in place, such as new wayfinding signage, enhanced lighting and noise barriers, access for waste collection and improvements to the existing cleaning program,” the ministry said.
It adds that the temporary closure is necessary to rebuild the road at Mount Pleasant Station and reconnect the south sidewalk to Main Street.
The ministry says that this is planned to happen in eight months, which is half the time that would be required if traffic were to keep moving on this block of Broadway during this phase of construction.
Upon completion, the 5.7-kilometre extension of the Millennium Line, from VCC-Clark Station to Arbutus, is also expected to alleviate traffic on the road and get people out to UBC even faster.
The province says 700 metres will be elevated and five kilometres will be tunnelled below ground. The line will include six underground stations.
According to the ministry, the subway will save the average Broadway transit commuter up to 30 minutes a day.
