Another weekend, another traffic jam.

Bumper-to-bumper traffic on Highway 1 isn’t uncommon, but with the Abbotsford Airshow taking place this weekend, the City of Abbotsford is warning anyone travelling through the Fraser Valley to prepare for delays.

“It’s often a parking lot,” said Alex Mitchell, CEO of the Abbotsford Chamber of Commerce, one of four Fraser Valley chambers calling on the B.C. government to speed up plans to improve the highway. “Our community is growing, economic activity is strong, but infrastructure is not keeping up.”

Public consultation ends Sept. 15, with work on half the project, from 264th to Mt. Lehman, scheduled to begin in 2024. Preliminary work such as tree-clearing and soil removal will start this summer.

But business groups representing Abbotsford, Langley, Mission and Chilliwack said that while consultation is important, they are worried about a lack of urgency. The province hasn’t set a timeline for the Mt. Lehman-to-Highway 11 work, or future phases to Chilliwack.

“We really want to see firm commitments,” said Mitchell. “We don’t want them to lose sight of the Mt. Lehman-to-Highway 11 section.”

With one section not set to start until another is fully complete, business groups are concerned it could take years to extend the highway into Abbotsford and beyond, while the region continues to grow.

Abbotsford is on the province’s so-called “naughty list” to be given housing targets, while the population of the Fraser Valley as a whole is expected to increase by 47 per cent through 2050.

Miriam Bozman, executive-director of the Mission Regional Chamber of Commerce, said Highway 11 connects Mission with the rest of the Fraser Valley and is also a “critical link” to the U.S. border.

“The current interchange is holding back growth and slowing business in Mission and across the valley,” she said.

Plans to expand the highway to Chilliwack, where traffic often crawls along during rush hour and summer weekends, remain nebulous.

The executive-director of the Chilliwack Chamber of Commerce noted that congestion slows commercial trucks, which account for about 8.5 per cent of all traffic through the Fraser Valley corridor.

“A strong and healthy B.C. economy relies heavily on a vibrant, thriving, efficient trucking industry to keep that economy moving,” said Leanna Kemp.

As housing prices have risen in Metro Vancouver, many people seeking space to raise a family have moved out to the Fraser Valley. Commuter traffic on Highway 1 leaving Chilliwack and Abbotsford starts around 5 a.m. as people head west to jobs in Langley, Surrey and Vancouver. It can take several hours to get home again during the afternoon rush hour.

“As the region’s fastest-growing community, Langley needs infrastructure that leads our growth, not struggles to keep up,” said Cory Redekop, CEO of the Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce.

He said the Gloucester area near 264th Street, where there are often long lineups to get off the highway, has gone without transit for too long. The area has seen significant housing development and provides access to both the U.S. border and a large industrial area that is key to the regional economy.

“Highway 1 is a vital corridor for the entire region and needs the quick action and investment to reflect this,” he said.

The four chambers plan to make a joint submission to the province as part of the engagement process.