Commuters in Surrey and New Westminster should expect to spend more time in their cars over the next week, as a full closure of the Pattullo Bridge gets underway Friday night. Starting at 8 p.m., the Pattullo and its replacement, the new stal̕əw̓asəm (Riverview) Bridge, will be closed to traffic for about a week. This will allow crews to complete connections to Surrey’s King George Boulevard and New Westminster’s McBride Boulevard on either side of the bridge. TransLink is warning drivers to plan for up to 30 minutes of extra travel time, and is proposing the Port Mann and Alex Fraser bridges as alternative routes. The N19 NightBus will be rerouted between New Westminster and Scott Road stations, and extra service will be in place to help keep trips on schedule. Service on the Expo and Millennium SkyTrain lines will also start one hour early on Sunday, Feb. 8. The sidewalk on the old bridge will remain open to pedestrians and cyclists during the closure, and emergency vehicle access will also be maintained. Access to businesses along King George Boulevard and 112 Avenue in Surrey, as well as those in downtown New Westminster, will not be affected by the closure. Crews will be working 24 hours a day to reduce the closure time, and residents who live nearby are being warned that it will be noisy. Saw-cutting, asphalt removal and milling, as well as work on a new multi-use overpass, will be taking place day and night. TransLink says that an exact time of reopening will largely be dependent on the weather. Once the week of work is completed, four lanes of traffic will reopen, split between the two bridges. Two northbound lanes and one southbound lane will open on the new stal̕əw̓asəm Bridge, with one southbound lane remaining open on the Pattullo. All four lanes are expected to open on the stal̕əw̓asəm Bridge in late February, as well as the new Royal Avenue on-ramp. The Pattullo Bridge replacement project has been plagued by delays and cost overruns. Originally intended to be completed in 2023, the new crossing opened to a single lane of northbound traffic on Dec. 24, 2025. Once finished, the new bridge will include wider lanes separated by a centre median, along with dedicated walking and cycling paths designed to improve safety. The project’s budget now sits at $1.6 billion. With files from CTV News Vancouver’s Ian Holliday
