The environmental review process for the $3.5 billion George Massey tunnel replacement project is now officially underway.
The BC Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) has scheduled public open houses , starting in mid-August as part of a 60-day public comment period.
The first open house takes place in Delta August 17, followed by one in Richmond September 13 and another open house in Delta September 14.
The Ministry of Transportation plans to replace the 57-year-old George Massey Tunnel with a 10-lane toll bridge that would take traffic along Highway 99 across the south arm of the Fraser River, but by bridge, rather than by tunnel. The project would also involve a number of improvements to the Highway 99 corridor.
The two key municipalities affected by the project – Richmond and Delta – are diametrically opposed.
The majority of Richmond city council is opposed to the project and wants to keep the tunnel. Most mayors with Metro Vancouver are also opposed to the project.
Delta Mayor Lois Jackson is among the only mayors on Metro Vancouver who supports the tunnel’s replacement.
Jackson said the new bridge would not only ease traffic flows going between Delta and Richmond, it would also ease pressure on the Alex Fraser Bridge.
She said there is generally strong support in Delta for a new bridge.
“All the industries that are here, all the truckers, all the associations that have anything to do with moving goods, the Vancouver Port, the provincial government, they see the benefits of having all of the traffic move more swiftly,” Jackson said.
Vancouver’s business community is generally in favour of the project. The Greater Vancouver Board of Trade says the Highway 99 south corridor is “one of the most important highway corridors in British Columbia.” Highway 99 south connects the Lower Mainland to the U.S. border, BC Ferries’ Tsawwassen terminal and the Deltaport container terminal.
“The congestion caused by the existing tunnel and adjacent interchanges severely slows goods movement which in turn slows the economy,” the GBOT wrote in a letter to the EAO during a preliminary comment period earlier this year.
According to the B.C. government, the new 10-lane bridge would shave 30 minutes off the commute of those who currently use the tunnel every day to get in and out of Vancouver.
