Today the Provincial government is releasing their independently appointed technical review on the previous Liberal Provincial government’s decision to build a ten lane bridge replacing the Massey Tunnel. This project was estimated to cost 3.5 billion dollars and would further industrialize the sensitive Fraser River delta at this location, and lay waste to fertile farmland.
There has been a prudent approach to the release of this report, with the Province hosting meetings with impacted municipalities and with the Metro Vancouver Mayors’ Council in advance of the release of the report. The previous Liberal government has been unabashed at their support for this overbuilt bridge that would have just created congestion between the bridge and Vancouver, and stressed the sensitive Fraser River estuary.
Expect to hear that the Province will fund safety improvements to the current tunnel, and that local First Nations as well as the Mayors’ Council will have to reach a mutually agreed decision on what any new crossing will look like.
I have already written about the fact that despite the situation of the new crossing in the heart of the Musqueam First Nations territory, the previous provincial Liberal government never consulted or asked for consent from the Musqueam. Also, as mentioned by transportation expert Eric Doherty, sustainability and climate change will factor in the placement of the new crossing, despite the fact that this was not in the study’s terms of reference. There are also ways to make the existing tunnel work better, by providing better transit, and limiting trucks going through the tunnel at peak times. Port Vancouver’s Deltaport could also work on a 24 hour schedule like every other port in North America to relieve the congestion.
The information provided by the previous provincial government on the Massey Bridge was strangely one-sided, and information on the government website fluctuated while the provincial Liberals had control of the government. In Metro Vancouver, only the City of Delta waved the flag in favour of this overbuilt bridge and Delta Council sent their Mayor and staff to Ottawa last summer in a last-ditch effort to plead for the bridge, at a cost of $40,000 to Delta taxpayers.
There is already a soft pedalling happening in Delta, with the current Mayor (who is the previous city manager) suggesting that perhaps a smaller bridge would be just fine. While it is expected that the options of an additional tunnel or a smaller bridge will be two of the presented options, the question remaining will be the big one~who will finance this crossing, and who has it on their “to do” list?
And the study recommends…more study. Or at least a supposedly less biased one.
https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/george-massey-crossing-shorter-smaller-bridge-or-a-new-tunnel
I can’t see these teetering voters south of the Fraser getting nothing. The study will probably show the “need” for more road capacity and hence either more or wider tunnels or a bridge – whatever’s cheaper. The report will probably finish late next year – just a year out from an election. Plenty of time to make hash.
Disappointing that the study favours elimination of the proposed median bus HOV lanes and stations in favour of continued use of the shoulders as bus lanes.
I can understand bus lanes along the median. I cannot understand why any transit passenger would ever want to stand in the middle of a roaring freeway. There has to be a better way.
bus lanes in the median allow for faster/more comfortable ride (since no need to deal with wavering general traffic due to entrance/exit ramp), but more importantly, this allows for much better transit connection:
https://www.metrotransit.org/Data/Sites/1/media/facilities/transit_centers/35w_46station_aerial.jpg
with at minimum twice less bus stop (vs the current Stevenson pattern), it means each bus stop can receive twice more money at constant budget. so overall providing a better user experience than waiting on a sorry shoulder.
the sad reality is that the only today news is that the province want to get rid of all transit improvement infrastructures, which were part of the original project
I suppose the alternative is to stand at the side of the roaring freeway or a secluded spot among the on/off-ramps.
At least with the median island platform, there’s a station (and the sense of place / security that comes with that), rather than separate bus stops.
The plan was for stacked stations – on the overpass for east-west buses with elevators and stairs down to the median station in the freeway.
This is a rendering of the Steveston Hwy station. The overpass had a weave to get bus doors to the centre platform, and for the freeway below, there was also a criss-cross to get buss door to the centre platform.
https://imgur.com/asxpXUc
For the Hwy17A facility, there would have been curbside stops on the overpass, necessitating 2 elevators (1 each side of the overpass), not just one in the middle.
The report also said that having the station in the median required long expensive pedestrian paths and bridges to get there, as opposed to the shoulder facilities.
But I would expect the majority of passengers to get there by feeder bus, rather than walking, and even with the shoulder facilities, the long walk argument would still apply to walking to the other side of the interchange to the shoulder stop.
This + the absence of road pricing killed by the NDP/Green…
it becomes increasingly clear that the region(and tax payer) will be in much worse shape with the current proposal vs the one touted by the previous government.
There is no current proposal yet. The study outlines more possibilities in much greater detail and with far wider consultation with engineering and project management experts than the BC Liberals allowed, from minimum efforts to the 10-lane monster bridge and 20-lane Shanghai / Atlanta / Mexico City / Hong Kong-scale interchange to the blueberry fields of Delta.
Of course, doing nothing would clearly be the most affordable option for taxpayers irrespective of road pricing.
Why is this commuter porn photo posted every time there is talk of a crossing? Who fabricated this fantasy? Seriously, who manufactured this – does anybody know?
No bridge in the world will ever look like this: light, evenly dispersed traffic – perfection – a highly manipulative, titillating falsehood. It’s all about the billions of dollars up for grabs.
Even the Millau Viaduct doesn’t look this sexy.
Port Mann was about this lightly trod before tolls were removed. On a nice day it looked similar.
If anything, the sparse traffic works against the project as it suggests it being “overbuilt”.