VANCOUVER, B.C. — The Hwy. 15 FAST lane in Surrey, B.C. is being extended to ease congestion and enhance safety at the Pacific Highway Border Crossing, the federal and provincial government recently announced.

“More than a million commercial vehicles cross the border into the United States each year,” said David Emerson, federal Minister of Industry. “Extending the NEXUS/FAST truck lane will help ease congestion and encourage more commercial vehicles to enroll in the program.”

Work on the new $2.6 million extension will begin in the summer of 2005 and will wrap up the following spring. The feds are chipping in $1.05 million while the province is on the hook for the remainder.

“This extension will benefit both the trucking industry, by reducing delays and queues for commercial vehicles, and the surrounding community, by reducing air pollution and noise levels,” said federal Transportation Minister, Jean-C Lapierre.

As part of the extension, a third southbound lane will be added to Hwy. 15, extending from just south of Fourth Ave. to Eighth Ave.

“In the Lower Mainland, traffic congestion costs our economy as much as $1.5 billion a year,” said B.C. Transport Minister, Kevin Falcon. “The Highway 15 extension will greatly improve traffic flow for commercial vehicles crossing the border, allowing products to get to their markets more efficiently.”

The Pacific Highway border crossing is the fourth busiest commercial crossing in Canada, handling 75 per cent of commercial traffic from the Lower Mainland.