Delta mayor ready to accept tunnel upgrade may not be ten-lane bridge

DELTA (NEWS1130) — The mayor of Delta’s wish for a ten-lane bridge to replace the George Massey Tunnel may be dashed, but he hopes construction starts up again soon.

It’s been more than a year since work was halted by the provincial government.

After meeting with transportation minister Claire Trevena, Delta Mayor George Harvie seems willing to compromise.

“It is their asset. What I stressed, though, was at the minimum, we need three lanes each way. We would want to see from the day the new bridge opens, the ability for a rapid bus –a very robust transit system which we do not have,” he says. “Providing we have alternatives such as a very robust transit system.  We’d like to see the construction start as soon as possible, but I recognize that this is an asset that’s owned by the province and what we need to do is also look at the financial plan as to how this will be costed and how it will be actually funded.”

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Harvie says he understands concerns about creating a bottleneck heading into Vancouver, but he insists the current aging system has to be replaced.

“It alternates, as you know, three lanes do exist now, but we do not have a real efficient transit system to get people out of their cars and I’m also looking forward to discussions with my fellow mayors’ council colleagues ensuring that this fits into the regional transportation plan,” he says.

Meanwhile, Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie says another option remains twinning the tunnel.

“That is a perfectly viable solution and one that would be far superior to the bridge options that have been proposed to date,” he says. “My understanding’s that options for leaving the current tunnel intact, twinning it or otherwise dealing with it, I understand that that is among the options that are being considered. We intended to put that kind of an option on the table with the previous government and we were ignored on it.”

An independent technical review ordered in September of last year is set to be made public by the end of this year, but it’s been in government hands since June.

RELATED: Where is the report on the Massey Tunnel? Unclear when the province will announce its plans

The report is expected to contain pricing options which could run as high as $3.5 billion.

Ian Paton, the Liberal MLA for Delta South, says this report should have already been released because enough time’s been wasted doing nothing about the aging tunnel.

“There’s this huge back-up of traffic that is trying to feed four or five lanes of traffic into one and if there’s a stall or a fire or an accident in the tunnel, everything grinds to a halt,” he says. “It’s a huge safety issue. We need to move on with a tunnel that’s also very seismically unsafe.”

WATCH: Malcolm Brodie talks Massey tunnel

Paton adds the longer we wait, the more it will cost: “There was already two major engineering studies done and the reports have been in hand and both reports showed that replacing the tunnel with a bridge was by far the best option.”

He’s also downplaying concerns about any tunnel upgrades creating bottlenecks further down Highway 99.

“It’s kind of like saying, well, why should you widen Highway 1 all the way to Chilliwack, ’cause it just gets narrow again once you get past Chilliwack,” Paton says. “Let’s get on with the George Massey tunnel replacement and then, several years down the road, perhaps we can take a good look at how to speed things up at the Oak Street bridge.”

Paton cautions a smaller bridge could lead to commuters 50 years from now facing gridlock –much like many drivers do now crossing Lions Gate bridge which connects Vancouver with the North Shore.