Task force recommends new eight-lane tube to replace Massey Tunnel
Credit to Author: Jennifer Saltman| Date: Thu, 03 Oct 2019 01:43:49 +0000
Elected officials from communities on both sides of the George Massey Tunnel want the aging river crossing replaced with a new eight-lane tunnel.
The officials are members of a Metro Vancouver task force who chose from six crossing options proposed by the province. Their recommendation will be forwarded to a finance committee and then Metro’s board of directors for consideration, likely by the end of October or in November. A final Metro recommendation will be taken to public consultation by the province.
“I’m really pleased that the Metro Vancouver task force were able to come to agreement on the choice that they want to see for the crossing at the Massey Tunnel,” Transportation Minister Claire Trevena said.
Within months of taking office in 2017, the B.C. NDP government cancelled Liberals plans for a 10-lane, $3.5-billion bridge to replace the tunnel and commissioned a review. Shortly after the review was released last December, the province began consultations with Metro municipalities and First Nations, which had mostly opposed a 10-lane bridge.
“We’ve come a long way together in a relatively short period of time,” Lina Halwani, project director with the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, said during her presentation to the task force.
The new tunnel would be an immersed tube, like the existing four-lane Massey Tunnel, which means it’s constructed in pieces that are sunk into a river bottom trench and joined together. It would have six lanes for regular traffic and two dedicated to transit, plus a multi-use path.
Critics warned that number of lanes means the tunnel would be a choke point for traffic from Day 1.
This option would require about a kilometre of tunnel, a large staging area, soil removal and ground compacting. It would have a significant environmental impact in and around the river during construction and require a complex environmental assessment, however it is considered to have little long-term impact.
It’s expected to take three years for an environmental assessment and five years for construction.
A six-lane immersed tube was also presented as an option, but rejected because the old tunnel would have had to be used for transit, a proposition that would require hundreds of millions of dollars in upgrades. TransLink staff oppose using the existing tunnel for transit because the trip would take longer.
A three-kilometre, six- or eight-lane bridge was also contemplated. It would have the least complex environmental assessment because much of the work has already been done, however it would have greater noise, light, visual and shading impacts.
Delta Mayor George Harvie, who has supported a bridge in the past, said he was concerned about the effect of a bridge on nearby residents.
“I won’t turn my back on Delta residents who live in the area,” Harvie said.
Tsawwassen First Nation Chief Ken Baird was the only task force member who spoke against a tunnel and in favour of a bridge. “The Tsawwassen people, we live off the salmon and we live off the seafood in the Salish Sea and the mighty Fraser River,” he said. “Our opinion is a little different than yours because we’re fearful of the negative impacts the other options will have on the Fraser River.”
A bridge could be build faster — two years for environmental assessment and five for construction.
Two options that involved a six- or eight-lane tunnel bored deep below the river were quickly eliminated.
“It is simply not feasible,” said Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie.
Deep-bored tunnels are considered high risk and would require one of the largest tunnel-boring machines in the world. There is a risk of multiple sinkholes during construction, interchanges would have to be reconfigured, ground densification would be needed on both sides of the river, and it would take the longest to build.
“It basically boils down to our unique soil and seismic conditions, combined with the significance of our river,” said Halwani.
It would also cost three times as much as a bridge or immersed tube tunnel, though a price estimate was not provided.
New Westminster Mayor Jonathan Coté, who chairs TransLink’s Mayors’ Council, said there is a great need for permanent dedicated transit lanes throughout the corridor, to improve the speed, reliability and carrying capacity of rapid transit. The task force made that part of their recommendation.
Harvie said no tunnel replacement could relieve congestion without good transit.
“We can’t just build this in isolation, it has to have a robust rapid transit system,” he said.
Mayors also pointed out that the project should take into account improving the entire Highway 99 corridor, so the bottleneck is not just pushed toward Vancouver.
White Rock Mayor Darryl Walker and others had serious concerns that there were no price estimates on any of the options.
Halwani said it was too early to come up with specific costs.
“These designs very early stages and it’s not fair to commit to a dollar figure when we still have a lot of work and details that we need to work through,” she said.
Operating and maintenance costs are expected to be more on a tunnel than a bridge, but there was no indication of what those costs would be.
It’s expected the province will have a final business case complete by fall 2020.
Delta South Liberal MLA Ian Paton said tunnel construction would cause huge disruption to river traffic and the river bed itself. He guessed that an environmental assessment will take twice as long as anticipated.
“This is not environmentally friendly whatsoever,” he said.
And Richmond-Queensborough Liberal MLA Jas Johal said his constituents are incredibly frustrated with the process thus far and suggested an eight-lane tunnel isn’t enough.
“Essentially, on Day 1 you’re going to have gridlock with a new tunnel and that’s not something I think my constituents want to hear. They’re fed up at this point,” he said.