George Massey Tunnel commuters won’t be driving underwater for too much longer if the new provincial government gets its way. The Conservative Party of BC is planning to scrap the BC NDP’s eight-lane tunnel for what they say is a cheaper, quicker 10-lane bridge.
Delta-South MLA Ian Paton says it comes down to numbers.
“The math says that it would be $5 billion cheaper to go back to building the bridge, and the bridge will be completed sooner than the tunnel could ever be completed,” Paton said.
Specifically, Paton says commuters could expect to drive over the bridge in five years.
In addition to being finished more quickly and costing billions of dollars less than the NDP’s $8.5-billion eight-lane tunnel, Paton says there’s already a completed environmental assessment for the bridge.
He says landowners shouldn’t be too concerned, because the bridge would go over the existing tunnel, lining up with Highway 99 on both sides.
In addition, he’s confident this will secure federal funding.
“It’s better for taxpayers, it’s better for the environment, it’s going to be cheaper than the tunnel, and it can get done faster than the tunnel, which is a benefit to taxpayers in this country,” Paton said.
If the Conservatives can prove all of that, then Delta’s mayor-elect Melissa Granum says she’s on board.
“The decision of bridge-versus-tunnel, I would be a bridge supporter,” Granum said.
But there is one undeniable downside to the change of plans: the 200 people working on site right now will lose their jobs until the new project starts.
That’s something Bryan Railton with the International Union of Operating Engineers doesn’t want the new government taking lightly.
“There isn’t a bridge sitting in our back pocket, so when a tunnel gets cancelled, or if it gets cancelled, those workers will be out of work the next day,” Railton said.
But Paton says it’s a matter of dusting off the old 2017 plans for a bridge.
As well, Paton says, commuters will prefer it to going underwater.
“People get creeped out by tunnels,” he said.
“The minute they get into a tunnel they slow down. It gets dark. It gets creepy.”
