Mike Anstead sends along this observation:
With talk of a new Massey Tunnel replacement bridge that would be as wide as the world’s widest bridge, the Port Mann, I wonder why Vancouver, of all places, has this crazy quest for super wide bridges.
Seems that we have a history.
I live in my Electra condo downtown, and have an informal collection of postcards in which the Electra (nee BC Electric Building) appears.
I include a mid-fifties image that shows the Electra dominating Vancouver’s downtown skyline. This postcard celebrates the new Granville Bridge: “The widest bridge on the continent outside of New York.”
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Now here’s the thing about the Granville Bridge: it can never be filled up. That is, it will never meet its design capacity. Not enough cars can be fed onto it from the feeder streets to ever congest its eight lanes. Notice even in this postcard that there looks to be more cars on it in the mid-1950s than one might see today.
Which means, as an example of waste and excess, it’s a particularly good exhibit. That high-level super-wide structure costs a lot of money to maintain, paint, repave and refurbish, many times more than what it might cost to build – oh, I don’t know – a network of bike lanes.
And yet we keep on doing it, building more ‘widest bridges in the world.’ I’m betting that the Port Mann Bridge will be another example of excess capacity, and the Massey crossing after that. Speaking of which, why it is proposed to be ten lanes too? Where did that come from? Maybe it was arbitrarily decided when someone had to come up with a rendering. ‘Sure, make it ten lanes, that’ll look good -and we can change it later.’ But I will not be at all surprised if that’s what gets built for three billion or so, without a complaint by those vigilant over government waste.
And there won’t be a referendum on that.
Keep in mind that Vancouver is a harbor city. There are over 30+ harbors in MetroVancouver . Many feed trains but most feed trucks. Downtown Vancouver used to have a coal harbor.
As such wide bridges may have made sense fifty years ago, and certainly make sense today in some places like Port Mann or Massey.
You cannot transport containers or coal or goods by bike. The NDP ruined this province in the 1990’s due to the underinvestment in infrastructure. Port Mann and Massey and South Fraser highway is just catch up work.
And yes, Burrard and Granville bridges today are too wide. Perhaps one can actually be taken down completely.
Why is there no pedestrian bridge actually, over False Creek, accessible from the sea wall on either side ? Inconvenience 10.000 pedestrians a day so 4 sailboats can pass at ease , often none in the winter actually ?
Remember that the people asking for the bridges are the ones sitting alone in their cars getting frustrated with traffic.The George Massey tunnel has what, three lanes, and is “always gridlocked” when these single commuters access it each day. They probably see it as two lanes with the flow so we would need to double it to four lanes to make it a comfy ride and since we all hate lanes that can change direction like the current centre lane we should remove that, have four lanes each way giving us eight lanes. But GROWTH! Throw in a couple more lanes to 10 so we don’t have to repeat this process again in five years.
Right?
Since the tunnel is supposed to be for trucks, why not toll everything that isn’t a truck?
On the topic of the Granville bridge, here’s another idea I’m sure has been kicked around here. They could turn half the Granville bridge into a beautifully landscaped walking and biking path with great views and still support double the traffic that’s already there (I have no source for this, just a guess/wish on my part).
Other cities also seem to gravitate towards double deck spans and twin spans. The new bridge in Minneapolis to replace the one that collapsed is also ten lanes but on two spans. The proposed Columbia River Crossing was also two double decked spans with ten vehicle lanes, two light rail “lanes”, large pedestrian/cycle path and large shoulders. And the particular design of the Port Mann, with four planes of cables, makes in particularly wide because there is almost a boulevard down the centre.
Just as bad, even after the fiscal disaster that is the overbuilt underused Golden Ears Bridge, Surrey is pushing for a costly 6 lane Pattullo. With the SkyBridge capable of carrying 52,000 people per hour right next to it and the world’s widest bridge a few kilometres away, there is pretty much no way a 6 lane Pattullo is needed. All it would do is take money away from badly needed transit including LRT in Surrey.
Surrey will be BC’s largest city by around 2020. I am surprised the bridge is only six lanes. Trucks and cars will be with us for a century at least. We need more bridges and public transit for a growing population in a region with 30+ harbors.
Also remember that Granville Street was a full on 4 lane street (not a 2 lane transit mall) with 2 curbside parking lanes when the bridge was built. It was also intended to connect to an east-west highway that was never built.
In the absence of the feeders, of course there won’t be as much traffic as originally projected – it’s a result in change in circumstances.
The same is true for the Millennium Line – it is still without its two Phase 2 feeder extensions – the Evergreen Line and the Braodway Line (to Arbutus) and for the moment, it could also be argued to have been over built.
Yes, east- west connection in Vancouver, from highway 1/Burnaby to UBC sucks. We need a highway and a subway for additional density already being built at UBC , along Broadway and soon, UEL with a Musqueam proposed 22 storey 5000+ people new community just east of UBC !
The last thing we need is a highway to UBC. We just read in this post about unnecessarily wide bridges; why make a similar mistake on more wide roads?
So many gems in the photo above. Love all the old houses hiding behind the Burrard Street Bridge. Just throwing this idea out here: if we invest a fraction of the proposed money, to replace the Massey tunnel and Pattulo, on a higher capacity railbridge over the Fraser river at New West, we will do more for the efficient movement of goods (and reducing congestion) in the region than we would by increasing highway capacity. Also, curious to speculate about what would have happened if we had kept the Kitsilano Trestle and a North-South rail link between the Port of Vancouver and Delta/Tswassen. Would Knight Street and Clark Drive be free of all those container trucks we see nowadays?