Islanders grump about the sa国际传媒 Liberals lavishing money on highway and transit projects in the Lower Mainland, but Premier Christy Clark has come up with one that even Victorians can approve: A bridge to replace the George Massey Tunnel.
Anyone who has headed into downtown Vancouver from the ferry knows the bottleneck that is the tunnel under the south arm of the Fraser River.
On Friday, Clark called the tunnel 鈥� once known as the Deas Island Tunnel 鈥� one of the worst bottlenecks in the province.
The 629-metre tunnel, which joins Richmond to Delta, is the only road tunnel in sa国际传媒 that is below sea level, so its asphalt is the country鈥檚 lowest road surface.
Clark didn鈥檛 have a pricetag for the replacement, nor did she know if it would be a toll bridge, but others have suggested it would cost $3 billion. Clark expects construction to start in 2017.
It will be the third major bridge the sa国际传媒 Liberals have built on the Lower Mainland. The recently opened Port Mann toll bridge cost $3 billion and the Golden Ears Bridge cost $800 million. Drivers must pay tolls on both those bridges.
Although planners say that projects such as bridges become congested within a few years, this one will make a trip to Vancouver less irritating, at least for a little while.
The main downside to a bridge is that future generations of sa国际传媒 children will never experience the tradition of holding their breath all the way through the Massey Tunnel.
