‘Crosscut Bridge’: City of North Vancouver staff recommend new name for Casano-Loutet Overpass

City of North Vancouver council will meet today at 6 pm to consider endorsing the name of a new pedestrian and cycling bridge over Highway 1.

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City staff are recommending the Casano-Loutet bridge be called Crosscut Bridge, a name selected by the City’s Civic Naming Committee on February 20 after deliberating on three options. The other names considered were Cedar Bridge and Casano-Loutet Overpass.

The name references “the Cut,” the colloquial term North Shore residents have long used for the steep stretch of Highway 1 between Mountain Highway and Lynn Valley Road.

The $12.5-million bridge has been informally known as the Casano-Loutet Overpass since a feasibility study in 1999, named after its endpoints — Casano Drive and Rufus Avenue to the north and Loutet Park to the south.

When complete, the bridge will reconnect Cedar Village to the north with Loutet Park and the south-side neighbourhoods that were cut off when the Upper Levels Highway was extended east to the Second Narrows Bridge, opening to traffic on March 4, 1961.

CNV report says for more than 60 years, residents, students, and cyclists have had to detour via the Lynn Valley Road interchange to travel between the two areas. Community consultation formally resumed in 2017, with residents consistently telling the City that the highway functions as a barrier, pushing people into cars when they would otherwise walk, cycle, or roll, the report says.

Construction funding includes $4 million from the provincial government, $2.5 million from TransLink, and $6 million from the City. Completion is scheduled for summer 2026, when the name would be publicly revealed at a ribbon-cutting ceremony if the council approves it on Monday.

The Crosscut name carries more than one meaning, according to the staff report. Beyond referencing the Cut, it draws on the North Shore’s logging history — the crosscut saw was the defining tool of the Pacific Northwest timber industry from the 1880s through the mid-20th century, used by two-person crews whose work helped build the region.

The crosscut saw cuts perpendicular to the grain, and staff note the bridge does the same: it crosses the existing road network at a right angle, creating an entirely new kind of connection. The City’s public safety team has confirmed the name is distinct enough within local place names to avoid confusion during emergency dispatch.