21,800 cars per lane: Ironworkers Bridge is Metro Vancouver's most congested crossing | Daily Hive

21,800 vehicles per lane per day: Ironworkers Memorial Bridge is Metro Vancouver's most congested crossing

Ironworkers Memorial Bridge. (EB Adventure Photography/Shutterstock)

Vehicle traffic congestion on the North Shore is intensifying, with the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge now carrying the highest traffic load per lane of any major crossing in the region, according to a new District of North Vancouver staff report.

The report analyzes 2025 post-pandemic traffic volumes and compares them to pre-pandemic levels. It finds that overall traffic patterns have shifted across Metro Vancouver, with demand on the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge growing significantly and now exceeding the 1960-built crossing’s capacity, which forms a crucial segment of Highway 1.

The Ironworkers Memorial Bridge carries approximately 130,700 vehicles per day on average — second only to the 10-lane Port Mann Bridge, another crossing of Highway 1, in total volume. Moreover, this North Shore bridge saw a six per cent increase in traffic compared to before the pandemic — rising from 123,800 per day on average in 2019.

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But with just six lanes, this bridge reaching the North Shore now sees about 21,800 vehicles per lane daily on average, the highest of any major bridge or tunnel surveyed.

District staff note that traffic per lane is a useful measure for congestion, making the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge the most strained crossing in Metro Vancouver.

By comparison, the Port Mann Bridge handles more total vehicles — about 179,400 per day on average — but spreads that traffic across 10 lanes, resulting in a lower per-lane pressure of about 17,900 vehicles per lane per day on average.

Only the George Massey Tunnel and the Lions Gate Bridge come close to the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge’s per lane averages.

The four-lane, counterflow-operating George Massey Tunnel saw its overall average volumes fall by two per cent from 84,300 vehicles per day in 2019 to 82,200 per day in 2025. It saw 20,700 vehicles per lane per day in 2025 on average.

Meanwhile, the Lions Gate Bridge — the only other bridge reaching the North Shore, and forming a segment of the Highway 99 route — saw its overall daily volumes fall by six per cent from 60,200 in 2019 to 56,600 in 2025 on average. The 1937-built, three-lane bridge saw an average of 18,900 vehicles per lane per day in 2025.

Ironworkers Memorial Bridge. (EB Adventure Photography/Shutterstock)

The Ironworkers Memorial Bridge and the Lions Gate Bridge are the only road connections between the Lower Mainland south of Burrard Inlet and the North Shore municipalities — namely the District of North Vancouver, the City of North Vancouver, and the District of West Vancouver. They also serve as vital links to the North Shore’s three ski destinations.

Beyond local travel, these crossings are essential regional corridors, providing the only access to BC Ferries’ Horseshoe Bay terminal for services to the Sunshine Coast and Vancouver Island, as well as to Squamish, Whistler, and Pemberton along the Sea-to-Sky Corridor.

Together, the bridges form one of only two routes from the Lower Mainland to Vancouver Island via the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal.

The Ironworkers Memorial Bridge is already operating beyond capacity, with congestion frequently spilling onto surrounding municipal roads. When incidents occur — such as collisions or breakdowns — gridlock can spread across the North Shore and take hours to resolve.

Moreover, whenever there are similar incidents on the Lions Gate Bridge that result in its closure, which also occurs frequently, the traffic is diverted onto the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge.

As well, accessing the Lions Gate Bridge as a regional route depends on going through the urban streets within and near the downtown Vancouver peninsula, which are increasingly constrained by traffic congestion due to new protected bike lanes narrowing key roadways for vehicles, construction activity, urban growth, incidents, and occasional disruptive protests and public events requiring street closures. This can also similarly deter some drivers from using the Lions Gate Bridge, which further increases congestion on the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge.

“The impacts extend beyond driver frustration and include reduced transit reliability, delayed emergency response times, and diminished residential access and liveability,” reads the report.

District staff warn that its local roads were not designed to handle overflow from regional traffic. Physical constraints — including geography, creeks, and existing development — make significant road expansion difficult.

ironworkers memorial bridge north shore burrard inlet second narrows

Ironworkers Memorial Bridge looking towards the North Shore. (Shutterstock)

Despite growing demand and provincially mandated housing and employment growth targets, the provincial government has not committed to major transportation infrastructure upgrades.

In 2021, the provincial government completed Highway 1’s Lower Lynn interchanges near the north end of the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge. Then, in 2022, it also released the findings and recommendations of a provincial study on upgrading the Upper Levels Highway (Highway 1/99) between the Sea to Sky Highway at Horseshoe Bay and the north end of the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge.

Starting in September 2026, there will be some public transit improvements at the Second Narrows, with the North Shore’s R2 RapidBus extended significantly from its current eastern terminus at Phibbs bus exchange to reach SkyTrain’s Brentwood Town Centre and Metrotown stations in Burnaby via the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge, Hastings Street, and Willingdon Avenue.

Over the medium term, the R2 RapidBus could potentially be upgraded to a new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) standard, but there would not be any bus-only lanes on the bridge given the crossing’s capacity constraints.

There is also an ongoing consideration of building a superior form of rapid transit along the corridor over the long term, such as street-level Light Rail Transit (LRT) or SkyTrain. Such a new rail rapid transit line could potentially be integrated into a new multi-modal replacement of the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge, which is expected to reach the end of its lifespan over the coming decades.

According to a 2023 preliminary study commissioned by the District, a 19.5-km-long SkyTrain line — generally following the route of the R2 RapidBus — between Park Royal in West Vancouver and Metrotown via the Second Narrows could see a highly competitive end-to-end travel time of about 23 minutes and very strong ridership of 120,000 boardings per day, far exceeding BRT and surpassing LRT.

north shore burrard inlet rapid transit skytrain map

SkyTrain concept for the Burrard Inlet Rapid Transit Line. (McElhanney/District of North Vancouver)

Currently, when it comes to regional bridge/tunnel crossings, the provincial government is focusing on advancing the project of building a new eight-lane immersed tunnel replacement of the aging George Massey Tunnel. Earlier this year, the provincial government hinted that the new tunnel could see a cost escalation beyond its previously projected $4-billion budget, along with construction delays. This project was scheduled to begin major construction work in 2026.

The District’s new traffic report highlights diverging trends across Metro Vancouver’s critical regional crossings since before the pandemic.

Average daily traffic volumes on the seven-lane, counterflow Alex Fraser Bridge fell by four per cent from 112,800 vehicles in 2017 to 108,500 in 2023, with a per-lane average of 15,500 vehicles per day.

The seven-lane Pitt River Bridge saw its average daily volumes increase slightly by two per cent from 79,000 in 2019 to 80,400 in 2025, resulting in a per-lane average of 11,500 per day.

The old four-lane Pattullo Bridge, which is now undergoing demolition after the recent opening of its four-lane replacement, experienced an average of 62,000 vehicles per day in 2019. The crossing’s volumes fell by 10 per cent compared to 2025, reaching 55,700 per day overall or 13,900 per lane per day.

As for the six-lane Golden Ears Bridge, it saw substantial growth of 20 per cent from 59,400 vehicles per day in 2019 to 72,700 per day in 2025, with the per-lane average reaching 12,100 per day.

Both the Port Mann Bridge and Golden Ears Bridge have seen a years-long upswing trend in vehicle traffic volumes, ever since the BC NDP-led provincial government removed the years-old toll systems on both crossings in 2017, shortly after being elected into office.

Traffic volumes on Metro Vancouver’s major bridges and tunnels. (District of North Vancouver)

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