Tsawwassen Mills opening leaves shoppers in parking lot for hours

On the opening weekend of the Tsawwassen Mills shopping centre, shoppers were forced to endure hours of stalled traffic before they could leave the mall. (CTV)

On the opening weekend of the Tsawwassen Mills shopping centre, shoppers were forced to endure hours of stalled traffic before they could leave the mall.

Some shoppers were forced to wait up to four hours in their vehicles as they attempted to leave Saturday afternoon and took to social media to vent their frustrations.

The mall’s grand opening began on Wednesday with special promotions ending Sunday, drawing many consumers. Mall officials said 50,000 shoppers visited the centre on Saturday alone.

Delta police are in charge of mall parking and ramped up staffing on Sunday to prevent a second day of gridlock.

“We increased the staff today to ensure the traffic would flow better,” said Insp. Debra McLeod.

In June, local engineer Ian Robertson studied the issue of parking at the mall and voiced his concern.

"It will be chaos,” Robertson said. “The combined two malls will hold 8,700 cars... I don't see how this highway as redesigned could even handle half of that load.”

Highway 17 was widened in advance of the mall opening, but the long-term impacts on traffic are still unknown.

With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Scott Roberts