Richmond city council will get an update next week on the George Massey Tunnel replacement project, something that is in the early stages of an environmental assessment with a project completion date of 2030.
But the “real tragedy” is, if the original plan for a 10-lane bridge – initiated by the previous BC Liberal provincial government - had been kept, it would have opened this fall and would have cost $1.5 billion less, according to Kevin Falcon, leader of the BC Liberals.
Falcon has said he would scrap the eight-lane immersed tube tunnel plan and go back to the 10-lane bridge plan, if the BC Liberals win the next provincial election.
Not only does Falcon think the new BC NDP tunnel plan won’t help traffic congestion - especially since there won’t more lanes during rush hour than currently exist - sinking eight concrete tubes into the Fraser River will have a “massive” impact on the environment with impacts on the flora and fauna, including the sturgeon and salmon in the river.
"I'm not cancelling anything except the time that they're going to be going through the environmental assessment process, which they will be caught in up for years," Falcon said.
If the province were to go back to the bridge plan, Falcon estimated it would take six months to update the environmental assessment after which it could be built.
Richmond city council was vociferously opposed to the 10-lane bridge plan, and just last week Brodie reiterated his appreciation of the new eight-lane tunnel plan.
Of particular concern to Richmond city council was a massive cloverleaf planned for the Steveston interchange which would have encroached on farmland and greenspace.
Brodie has said he didn’t feel the city’s concerns in regards to the bridge were taken into consideration by the BC Liberal government.
Just last week, at the ground-breaking of the Steveston Interchange construction – which will replace the two-lane road with a five-lane road – Brodie told the News the 10-lane bridge plan “was unacceptable in so many ways,” including being as high as an apartment complex.
“I am very, very grateful to the government of British Columbia for sitting down with us … to say that what we want is something more in keeping with the environmental issues, the agricultural issues, the urban issues that we have faced,” Brodie said.
While Falcon praised Brodie as a “good mayor” and a “good man,” he said the concern about the cloverleaf wasn’t unreasonable, and he’d be willing to “revisit” it. However, he added, when he was minister of transportation with the BC Liberal government, his responsibility was for the entire region.
“That means sometimes the decisions I have to make are decisions, while they may engender local opposition, I have to think about the needs of the greater region,” Falcon said.
Furthermore, the 10-lane bridge would have supported rail service to South Surrey, Falcon told the News, something he thinks will be needed in the future.
He thinks the NDP government’s assertion that, population-wise, there is no justification for not planning for future rail on the corridor given the growing population in Richmond, Delta and Surrey, adding it’s a “huge mistake” not to plan for it.
Falcon said, when the NDP came into power, an environmental assessment and procurement plan were already completed for the bridge, and, at that time, $100 million had been spent on preparations, including pre-load.
The tunnel is expected to cost $4.15 billion and be completed by 2030 whereas the bridge bid came in at $2.6 billion - $900 million less than expected - and would be nearing completion now.
City council will be updated on the tunnel replacement project at Monday's general purposes committee meeting.
