Massey Tunnel Shit Show Revisited
Seven years later and we are still at it.
The newly elected Conservatives are trying to con everyone that they can build the bridge for around $6 billion.
Really?
It seems so.
Back in 2017, the full cost of the bridge was reported to be over $8 billion and the then newly elected NDP Premier Horgan, cancelled the bridge and opted for a tunnel instead.
In 2017, CKNW Radio reported that the full cost for the bridge was over $8 billion.
With the recent election of the Conservatives, out of pure politcal spite, they will cancel the tunnel, after $500 million has already been spent and go back to the original bridge plans.
But, there is a problem.
It seems the Conservatives slept through their math classes and forgot to add inflation to the original cost.
This has been completely ignored by the the new premier and the Delta Conservative MLA as they claim they can build the bridge for more than $2 billion less than the estimated cost in 2017.
The same tired rhetoric, the same anti tunnel “porkies” are being used by the peanut gallery or Russian, Chinese, American botts (foreign influencers are a dime a dozen these days) on social media, using cheap AI inspired posts to sway the public’s attentions.
So here we go again, politcans selling snake oil.
Of course, what the Conservatives and the NDP both ignore to tell the public is that the original reason for the removal for the Massey Tunnel is because it acted as a dike, prevent massive tankers and colliers going up the Fraser to Surrey docks to load American coal and oil.
Any talk about improving traffic congestion is just talk because there is still only four lanes of traffic on the Oak and Knight Street Bridges going north, unchanged in 51 years!
The taxpayer is in for a rollercoaster of lies, damned lies and statistics by the Conservatives desperately trying to sell a $12 billion plus bridge to the taxpayer (shades of the FastFerry scandal), with th claim of solving gridlock in Delta, while at the same time ignoring the fact that gridlock will only moved to Steveston Hwy, a mere 3 km away!
The bridge or tunnel debate underlines the “shit show” regional transportation planning has become.
Massey Tunnel Shit Show
Posted by zweisystem on Saturday, November 2, 2019
Blunt title but it is time to be blunt, regional transit planning is a “shit show”.
Shit show: Noun, vulgar slang, US origin – a situation or event marked by chaos or controversy.
This aptly describes our regional transit planning, where politicians at all levels of government promote their pet transit theories and projects, using an extremely dishonest bureaucracy to carry out their wishes.
This costs money, an awful lot of money; this wastes timed, an awful lot of precious time; this costs planning paralysis and in the end politicians approve doing the same thing over again, hoping for different results.
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” Albert Einstein, Dec 13, 2017.
The Massey tunnel replacement project must stand out as a grand example of political manipulation; yellow journalism by the mainstream media; and a complete lack of any coherent regional transportation plan.
The Massey Tunnel does not need replacing, it is perfectly safe.
What is needed: A new bridge/tunnel crossing of the South Arm, near the vicinity 80th Ave in North Delta and a second bridge/tunnel crossing, of the North Arm, adjacent to the CN rail bridge, from Richmond to South Burnaby. This entails new highway construction, which the regional politicians are afraid to contemplate.
All the new 8 lane bridge or tunnel do, without a second crossing of the North Arm of the Fraser, is to create a parking lot on Highway 99 in Richmond because of the restricted capacity of the Laing, Oak St. Knight St., and Queensborough bridges!
There has been no capacity increase for crossings of the North Arm of the Fraser River since 1975!
Until a comprehensive transportation plan is tabled and a rational regional strategy for transportation is obtained, any new bridge will create a “shit show” for traffic.
Speeding up Massey Tunnel replacement crucial for economy: Delta city Councillor
by Ria Renouf and Alison Bailey
Posted Nov 1, 2019
Summary
Transit advocates say any plan for replacing the Massey Tunnel should be assessed in light of climate concerns
A Delta councillor says a seismically safe, efficient alternative is urgently needed for the crucial economic gateway
DELTA (NEWS 1130) — Transit advocates are citing climate concerns and calling for plans for the George Massey crossing to be studied further, but a Delta politician says enough is enough.
Abundant Transit Vancouver penned an open letter asking for the plan for replacing the crossing to be sent to the Regional District’s Climate Action Committee for further scrutiny.
Coun. Dylan Kruger is a member of that committee and says further study is not necessary and a new crossing is urgently needed.
“They are arguing that there should be no replacement for the George Massey Tunnel because we should not be building for car infrastructure, we should only be building for transit,” he says. “I’m fully in support of building infrastructure to get people out of their cars but there’s a fundamental concept people have to understand when it comes to the Massey tunnel: the Massey Tunnel is the economic gateway into Canada.”
Kruger says commuters aren’t the only ones who rely on the tunnel.
“At the end of the day, container trucks can’t take transit,” he explains. “We still need to build so we can get goods from point A to point B, in this region and in this country. So the notion that we should be building only for transit infrastructure here, I think really does not take into account the economic ramifications.”
