The new Pattullo Bridge will gradually open to traffic in four phases | Daily Hive

The new Pattullo Bridge will gradually open to vehicle traffic in four phases this winter

October 2025 construction progress on the new Pattullo Bridge. (Government of BC)

If you have driven or taken the SkyTrain past the new four-lane Pattullo Bridge in recent weeks, noticed how much work still remains, and wondered how it could possibly open later this year — you are not alone.

As previously reported by Daily Hive Urbanized last week, the new replacement bridge recently reached a major construction milestone: all 80 cables and the final steel girders of the main bridge deck spanning the Fraser River have now been installed, and crews have begun pouring the roadway’s asphalt onto some sections of the bridge deck.

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While the project has entered its final stages, significant work remains. As a result, the new bridge will open to vehicle traffic in phases. The first opening is scheduled by Christmas 2025, but it will be a partial opening.

October 2025 construction progress on the new Pattullo Bridge. (Government of BC)

Newly released details from the provincial government show the phased approach for opening the bridge.

Timeline for the new bridge opening and old bridge demolition

Ahead of the opening, the provincial government is expected to reveal the Indigenous name for the new bridge, which will not retain the original bridge’s name honouring Thomas Dufferin Pattullo — the Premier of British Columbia during the Great Depression and Second World War. This past spring, the provincial government indicated the new bridge name will use the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ language.

The process of opening the new bridge to vehicle traffic will be highly phased, unlike Metro Vancouver’s most recent major bridge openings — the Golden Ears Bridge in 2009 and the Port Mann Bridge in 2012 — when all lanes opened to traffic at once.

For the first commissioning phase, beginning in December 2025, the existing Royal Avenue on-ramp to the old bridge will close to allow crews to connect the road network on the New Westminster side to the new bridge.

This will be followed by a short period that same month when both the old and new bridges will be fully closed to vehicle traffic. During this time, crews will complete additional road network connections on both the New Westminster and Surrey sides.

Phased opening process of the new Pattullo Bridge. (Government of BC)

As promised by the provincial government, the new Pattullo Bridge will open to vehicle traffic just before Christmas 2025 — but under a temporary traffic configuration. Westbound traffic will shift onto the two westbound lanes of the new four-lane bridge, while the old bridge will continue to carry eastbound traffic.

On opening day, the new bridge will connect to McBride Boulevard and feature a new off-ramp from the westbound lanes to East Columbia Street’s eastbound lanes in New Westminster. On the Surrey side, the new bridge will tie into King George Boulevard.

The Royal Avenue on-ramp will remain closed for about two weeks after opening day so that crews can build a new replacement on-ramp to the new bridge. During this time, drivers will be detoured via the existing Columbia Street loop on-ramp.

In January 2026, after 88 years of service, the old four-lane Pattullo Bridge will permanently close to vehicle traffic, and eastbound traffic will be shifted onto the new bridge.

Phased opening process of the new Pattullo Bridge. (Government of BC)

Final road connections open in 2026

The remaining road connections for the new bridge on both sides of the Fraser River cannot be completed until parts of the old bridge over land are demolished, as the old structure physically overlaps with the new on- and off-ramp footprints.

The full opening of the new bridge will coincide with a month-long closure of Columbia Street between McBride Boulevard and Elliot Street. This closure will allow demolition of the old bridge on the New Westminster side and the construction of a new Columbia Street loop on-ramp onto the new bridge.

After Columbia Street reopens, crews will spend roughly three more months (until early Spring 2026) completing the new loop on-ramp. Front Street in the area will also be fully closed for up to six months to remove sections of the old bridge directly above it and the railway tracks.

Phased opening process of the new Pattullo Bridge. (Government of BC)

On the Surrey side, nighttime and weekend full closures of Highway 17 (South Fraser Perimeter Road) and Bridge Road will be required to demolish sections of the old bridge above the roadways and to construct a new off-ramp from the new bridge onto Highway 17 westbound — a connection not available with the old bridge.

The Highway 17 off-ramp and the new pedestrian and cycling pathways on the bridge are scheduled to open in mid-2026, marking the completion of all bridge connections.

Phased opening process of the new Pattullo Bridge. (Government of BC)

There will be an overlapping timeline for demolishing the old bridge above land and water.

The removal of the old bridge’s structure will begin in early 2027 and end in mid-2027. The removal of the old bridge’s underwater structures — the foundations that sit on the river bed — will begin in Fall 2026 and end sometime in 2027, which will mark the full completion of the entire project.

Segments of the old Pattullo Bridge that must be demolished to build the final new on- and off-ramps for the new bridge. (Government of BC)

Segment of the old Pattullo Bridge above the river that will be fully demolished by 2027. (Government of BC)

How we got here

When major construction on the new crossing began in Spring 2021, the targeted opening date was late 2023. This was later revised to 2024, following delays caused in part by early pandemic impacts and the limited seasonal windows available for in-river work on the bridge piers to minimize ecological disruption. Due to the delays and a variety of issues, the project’s cost has increased from $1.38 billion to $1.64 billion.

The new bridge will be owned and operated by the provincial government, rather than TransLink — freeing up TransLink’s resources that were previously dedicated to maintaining and operating the old bridge.

pattullo bridge construction october 2025

October 2025 construction progress on the new Pattullo Bridge. (Government of BC)

Aerial view of construction on the bridge’s south approach taken in July 2025. (BC Ministry of Transportation)

This project serves as a critical safety replacement, prompted by technical studies that found the old bridge to be in very poor condition due to its age, advanced deterioration, and vulnerability to catastrophic failure from even a moderate earthquake, high winds, or a ship strike against its exposed in-river piers.

The risk level was so severe that, in 2020, TransLink completed the installation of an advanced earthquake and wind warning system on the old bridge, complete with automatic traffic control gates at each entrance to stop vehicles from entering in the event of an imminent disaster. This investment was made despite knowing that a new replacement bridge was only a few years away, underscoring just how serious the safety risks associated with the old structure were.

Previous analyses concluded that the old bridge must be fully decommissioned by the middle of this decade, further emphasizing the urgency of its replacement.

However, Surrey’s municipal officials and business community have lamented that a four-lane bridge is being replaced by a four-lane bridge, providing limited new capacity for the growing South of Fraser communities. They advocated for the need of a six-lane bridge from the get-go. On the other hand, New Westminster officials have been opposed to a larger bridge that funnels more traffic into the streets of their community.

Currently, the old bridge sees an average traffic volume of about 70,000 vehicles per day.

The provincial government maintains that the new bridge offers more capacity from its wider bridge lanes and the concrete centre divider — enabling vehicles to safely move at higher speeds than the old bridge — and the new and improved road connections at both ends of the new bridge, including the net gain of the off-ramp onto Highway 17. In addition to the poor structural condition, the old bridge is a safety risk due to its narrow lanes and the lack of a concrete centre divider.

The new four-lane bridge is designed to be widened to six lanes in the future — accomplished by narrowing the width of the existing four lanes, using the concrete deck footprint of the pedestrian and cycling pathways, and building replacement pedestrian and cycling pathways on new cantilevered decks on the side of the bridge deck.

pattullo bridge new westminster bridge 11

The old Pattullo Bridge and the project to build the new replacement bridge, July 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

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