Dear Editor,
Re: “Due diligence done on bridge,” Delta Optimist, Jan. 20.
The Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Todd Stone makes some statements that need to be addressed.
Although the decision has been made to remove the George Massey Tunnel and build a new 10-lane bridge, I feel the following information should be shared.
On May 25, 1959 the George Massey Tunnel opened for traffic. In the first 41 hours, 135,000 motorists travelled through the tunnel. This exceeded the tunnel’s rated capacity of 7,000 cars per hour by 300 additional cars.
If the statistics from the BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure are correct that in 2015, the Annual Average Daily Traffic was 80,666. which would equal some 3,361 vehicle per hour, well below the GMT tunnels capacity of 7,000 cars per hour, why then is there a problem at rush hour?
Could it be that Delta Port is the only major port in North America that does not operate 24/7? The fact is one container or large transport truck could displace up to four cars and at least 13 per cent of the vehicles using the tunnel during rush hour are large trucks.
One has to ask why then has the B.C. Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure not even considered a modern day policy of banning all trucks at rush hour.
My second point refers to the Minister stating that it is a fallacy how anyone could think that they are removing the tunnel so that the Fraser River could be dredged deeper to accommodate deeper ships, and that the province was not part of that project. This could not be further from the truth. One part is true — that the Ministry would not be doing the dredging, since that is the responsibility of the federal agency, Port Metro Vancouver.
But building a bridge and removing the tunnel would be the port’s preference and so, at the urging of industrial interests of the Pacific Gateway Strategy Plan on the Fraser River, the Ministry chose the bridge.
A representative from the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure was present at a meeting of the Pacific Gateway Strategy Plan on April 2006 and on Feb. 2. 2012, the Assistant Deputy Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure of the B.C. government met to discuss the constraints to increasing the Fraser River channel depth because of the existence of the George Massey Tunnel and recommended the removal of the George Massey Tunnel to achieve their goals. So it’s not so much a fallacy as it is a conspiracy to remove the tunnel, regardless of the data.
Douglas George Massey
Delta
