Among the major BC bridges and tunnels surveyed, the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge carries the highest traffic volume per lane, according to a report going to District of North Vancouver council. The report will be discussed at an upcoming council meeting on April 13.
The six-lane bridge now handles approximately 130,700 vehicles per day — about 21,800 per lane — making it the most congested crossing in Metro Vancouver by that measure. It carries the second-highest total daily volume of any major crossing in the region, behind only the Port Mann Bridge, which has 10 lanes.
The findings are based on 2025 data obtained from the Ministry of Transportation and Transit, supplemented by figures from TransLink. Staff say post-pandemic travel patterns have now stabilized enough to make the data reliable, replacing 2019 figures that had been used for years to make the case for provincial investment.
Traffic on the bridge has grown 6% since 2019, bucking the trend at several other crossings. The Alex Fraser Bridge, George Massey Tunnel and Lions Gate Bridge all saw volumes fall in the same period. The Port Mann and Golden Ears bridges absorbed significant post-pandemic growth — around 20% and 22% respectively — but both had more room to absorb it. The Ironworkers were already under severe strain before the pandemic.
The bridge was previously second to the George Massey Tunnel in per-lane congestion. By 2025, it had surpassed it.
The report is blunt about the consequences. When the bridge stalls — due to a collision, a stalled vehicle or emergency deck repairs — gridlock spreads across the North Shore and can take hours to clear. The impacts go beyond frustrated drivers: transit reliability suffers, emergency response times increase and residents lose access to their neighbourhoods.
The municipal road network was never designed to absorb spillover traffic from a regional crossing, and the geography of the North Shore — hemmed in by creeks, hillsides and private property — leaves little room to expand local roads even if the district wanted to.
Despite the pressure, the province has no committed upgrades to the Highway 1 corridor serving the North Shore.
Council has several options before it. In addition to receiving the report, members could direct the mayor to write to the Ministry of Transportation and Transit — copying the premier and local MLAs — requesting a status update on bridge replacement timelines and corridor improvements. Council could also direct staff to develop public-facing materials explaining the congestion problem, the district’s limited jurisdiction over provincial infrastructure, and what residents and senior governments can do about it.
