In the recent Delta Optimist, Doug Massey, son of George Massey has taken a look at the recent report by the Corporation of Delta describing safety concerns and fire/ambulance response in the tunnel. And Mr. Massey responds “It’s all a plan in order to make it (tunnel) distasteful for the public and favourable towards a bridge. Politics by the province is behind the latest report by Delta on the George Massey Tunnel.”
As the son of George Massey who had the idea to construct the tunnel five decades ago, Doug Massey has been unwavering in responding to the continually changing and sometimes quite diverse rationale that the Province champions in their dogged determination that the $3.5 billion dollar Massey bridge is good for us. After Delta’s safety report came out, Transportation Minister Todd Stone commended Delta for the report.
But Doug Massey says not so fast. “They’re playing a game of making the tunnel look bad. Of course it doesn’t have the safety features of a brand new tunnel but a lot of the accidents they’re talking about are not even in the tunnel, they’re on the approaches, and if they had proper warning signs well in advance to keep your headlights on, that would definitely help”.
Doug Massey also points out that there are immediate options to increasing first responder safety and lessening accidents in the tunnel, including restricting large trucks to certain times, and brightening the walls of the tunnel’s interior. He also notes that immersed tunnels are built around the world, with “some of these immersed tunnels (are) 37 metres down and 12 miles long, so, come on, you don’t build these things if they’re not safe. Ours is less than a mile long”.
“There’s a lot of things they could be doing to make it safer, but they’re making it more difficult. It’s just a game and they’re playing with people’s lives by doing it”.
Despite the fact that every other municipality in Metro Vancouver has requested a rethink of this bridge’s size, location, and rationale, the Province is continuing its relentless quest forward. Its been a particularly awkward era in Delta, where cumulative impacts of the proposed port expansion decimating vital flyway habitat, continued industrial development, the loss of agricultural land, and the building of a mega mall have erased arable farmland on the floodplain. Now the building of a massive ten lane bridge will further exacerbate the ecological fragility.
How will these decisions be regarded in fifty years?
I’ve tried go ogling Doug Massey’s qualifications for commenting. He doesn’t appear to be an engineer. The most telling quote I found was that he felt the new bridges didn’t “reflect his father’s wishes and dreams”. Which is nice, but hardly a reason to base an infrastructure decision on.
Oops googling not ogling! Gotta love autocorrect!
Bob: are you an engineer? No? OK, no reason to listen to you, either then.
To be honest, this is a pretty silly discussion and I think counter-productive. I’m not supportive of this bridge but I don’t give two hoots what the son of the guy the tunnel is named after thinks. Bringing him up just does exactly what’s already happened in this thread which is disqualifying the point because of the messenger.
This is, again, like the bike lane thing. Stop trying to make the argument for something by using these emotional arguments. You keep losing! I’m frustrated by it because the things I support like bike lanes, stopping this stupid bridge etc get bogged down in the asinine discussion of whether or not the son of the guy the tunnel’s named after should be listened to. Of course he shouldn’t! Who cares about him! There are so many good reasons based on solid logic that this bridge is a disaster but you bury those and pull on the ‘old man massey wouldn’t have wanted this’ strings which is just ridiculous.
Tunnel Vision.
Doug’s book might be worth a read. Catch up on the old cannery history:
Author
Reblogged this on Sandy James Planner.
I can hear the birds singing.
Let us close this tunnel if it is indeed unsafe and let us go back, with Doug Massey, to that simpler and much better time when we cruised our way across the river on a slow ferry. Forget any silly ideas of a bridge.
Live is to be savoured slowly. Slow down all this rushing. We should go down to river in boats.
Can you too hear the singing of the songbirds?
I for one am interested in hearing informed opinions. Gawd only knows how many uninformed opinions get broadcast here and into the ether.
It’s not in anyone’s interests to knock the messenger or disqualify their permission to comment as long as they have the ability to read, conduct a modicum of research, punch calculator keys and back what they say.
Doug Massey is no exception.
Safety is one consideration. Allocated road space is another. Here is is another way to illustrate the geometry of road space. Substitute tandem dump trucks filed with gold bricks to illustrate the cost to public finances. Courtesy of Stephen Rees’ blog.
https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/indy100/bkxvOI93HVe/29187-m4oqnr.gif