Fraser Highway is a major

arterial road An arterial road or arterial thoroughfare is a high-capacity urban road that sits below freeways/motorways on the road hierarchy in terms of traffic flow and speed. The primary function of an arterial road is to deliver traffic from collector ro ...

in the

Lower Mainland The Lower Mainland is a geographic and cultural region of the mainland coast of British Columbia that generally comprises the regional districts of Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley. Home to approximately 3.05million people as of the 2021 Canadia ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. Connecting the cities of

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

and Abbotsford, the highway formerly constituted a major portion of

British Columbia Highway 1A There are many roads in the southwestern part of British Columbia and Vancouver Island that were designated as Highway 1A. These roads were sections of the original 1941 route of Highway 1 before its various re-alignments, and are used today a ...

until the latter was decommissioned in 2006. The highway is named for the

Fraser River The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of Vancouver. The river's annual d ...

and the

Fraser Valley The Fraser Valley is a geographical region in southwestern British Columbia, Canada and northwestern Washington State. It starts just west of Hope in a narrow valley encompassing the Fraser River and ends at the Pacific Ocean stretching from the ...

, which are in turn named for the explorer Simon Fraser. The road was one of the first motor highways in British Columbia, being formed from portions of the Old Yale

wagon road ''Wagon Train'' is an American Western series that aired 8 seasons: first on the NBC television network (1957–1962), and then on ABC (1962–1965). ''Wagon Train'' debuted on September 18, 1957, and became number one in the Nielsen ratings. It ...

in the 1920s, and was known as the Inter-Provincial Highway but its importance as an east-west corridor was diminished with the construction of the

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway ( French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the Atlantic Ocean o ...

in the 1960s. Nonetheless, it remains an important thoroughfare. Running roughly parallel to the Trans-Canada Highway, it is often used as an alternative or feeder route for it.

Route description

The Fraser Highway runs in a generally southeast-northwest direction, roughly paralleling the Trans Canada Highway to the north of it. It alternates back and forth between one lane each direction (total of 2 lanes) to two lanes each direction (total of 4 lanes) between rural and urban surroundings. Its western terminus is at

King George Boulevard King George Boulevard (formerly known as King George Highway) is a major arterial road in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. The route begins at Highway 99, north of the Peace Arch Border Crossing with the United States, and runs generally no ...

and 98th Avenue in the Whalley Town Centre of Surrey, just south of the King George SkyTrain Station. From there, it passes through the mixed residential, commercial, and rural neighbourhoods of Green Timbers,

Fleetwood Fleetwood is a coastal town in the Borough of Wyre in Lancashire, England, at the northwest corner of the Fylde. It had a population of 25,939 at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census. Fleetwood acquired its modern character in the 1830 ...

, and Cloverdale. Leaving Surrey, the route bisects the City of Langley, before entering the more rural neighbourhoods of Murrayville, and Aldergrove in Langley Township. The eastern terminus is at the Trans-Canada Highway, just east of Mount Lehman Road, in the Clearbrook neighbourhood of Abbotsford.

Major intersections

References

{{Streets in Vancouver Former British Columbia provincial highways Former segments of the Trans-Canada Highway Highways in Greater Vancouver Transport in Abbotsford, British Columbia Transport in Langley, British Columbia (city) Transport in Langley, British Columbia (district municipality) Transport in Surrey, British Columbia