Richmond asking province to abandon Massey Tunnel replacement bridge

Battle over Massey Tunnel replacement plans Richmond City Council is formally asking the new NDP government to cancel construction of a bridge meant to replace the aging tunnel.

The City of Richmond is calling on B.C.’s new government to suspend work on a $3.5 billion bridge intended to replace the George Massey Tunnel and consider building a second tunnel instead.

“Richmond City Council recognizes the urgent need to address traffic congestion around the Massey Tunnel… But the bridge project, as currently proposed, is not the best way to achieve these objectives,” Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie said in a statement issued Tuesday.

On Monday night, councillors voted in favour of asking the province to look at alternatives to the 10-lane toll bridge, citing concerns over the project’s impact on agricultural land and local traffic.

“It's absolutely critical to the future of our city that there be a re-examination of this project,” Brodie said.

The city put forward two alternatives, both of which involve retaining the 58-year-old tunnel which connects Delta and Richmond across the Fraser River.

The first option involves adding a second, four-lane tunnel adjacent to the existing Massey Tunnel. Two of those lanes would be carpool lanes.

“The resulting six lanes for general purpose traffic through the tunnels would provide greater flexibility with respect to their operation in the most efficient arrangement,” the city said in the statement.

A second option is to build a two-lane, bus-only tunnel, the city said.

The proposal puts Richmond at odds with the neighbouring city of Delta, whose mayor, Lois Jackson, is one of the few Metro Vancouver mayor to publicly support the bridge project.

B.C. Premier John Horgan has indicated his government will end road tolls, a promise that could make the tunnels Richmond is proposing more viable options for the province.

That commitment was one of the key points of the NDP-Green pact that toppled former premier Christy Clark’s Liberal government.

In June, the Green party’s Andrew Weaver told CTV News that the bridge may not be built, hinting at similar alternatives such as twinning the existing tunnel, which is estimated to cost only hundreds of millions of dollars.

“We probably won’t be seeing the Massey Bridge move forward. We’ll see a pause in that direction,” Weaver said.

With files from CTV Vancouver's Penny Daflos