Requiem For The Massey Tunnel Replacement Bridge
The Massey Tunnel Bridge replacement project is again in the news, as the massively expensive replacement bridge for the Massey tunnel has been mothballed.
Now, the CBC has found hugely expensive financial irregularities with the new Port Mann Bridge, and the air of political corruption hangs heavily in the air.
Was the proposed mega bridge to replace he Massey Tunnel nothing more than Liberal corruption on steroids?
Maybe it is time for a corruption inquiry in BC?
Editor:
Deltaai??i??s propaganda campaign to garner support for the proposed mega bridge replacing the perfectly safe George Massey Tunnel is in full swing.
Deltaai??i??s ai???Politics and Misinformation Must Not Stop The Bridgeai??? campaign is repugnant due to its long list of Trump style fake news and alternative facts.
A proper study for replacing the tunnel with a bridge would take a year or more to do. Deltaai??i??s ai???back of an envelopeai??? review took less than a month to do and is poorly done as a result.
The replacement bridge was never about traffic congestion, rather it was to allow Panama-max tankers and colliers up the Fraser to Surrey Fraser Docks and no plans were made to reduce traffic at the Oak Street Bridge and Knight Street Bridge choke points. If anything, the proposed new bridge would create massive gridlock in Richmond.
As the real reasons for the bridge evaporated, Mayor Lois Jackson doubled down with another ai???back of an envelopeai??? plan by hijacking the Rail for the Valleyai??i??s Leewood Study, for a Vancouver/Richmond to Chilliwack TramTrain service, for her pro-bridge propaganda campaign.
The study released in 2010 took over a year to prepare by real transportation professionals, providing a cost effective Vancouver/Richmond to Chilliwack passenger rail, using TramTrain service for the Lower Mainland.
The study never planned for LRT service across the proposed bridge, nor would a meandering rail line using the proposed bridge be viable.
Unless there was direct service to Vancouver, any rail service using the bridge (which will not have rail built in) would fail miserably.
Instead of a ruinously expensive bridge, the mayor should concern herself with Surreyai??i??s $2.5-billion LRT, where two-thirds of the cost is being spent on roads and utilities for favoured land developers and speculators along the LRT route and the now $3 billion Broadway SkyTrain subway, which the route today has a quarter of traffic flows, needed to justify subway construction. Both are financial time bombs.
The mayor should support practical and cost-effective transit and transportation solutions and not massively expensive vanity projects that will do little real good except pauper the taxpayer.
Malcolm Johnston
I think your campaign would be a lot more successful if you didn’t wax hyperbolic so often. The Port Mann issues have nothing to do with corruption and everything to do with abject incompetence. Read the story again if you didn’t notice that. Trying to spin any problem on any transit system in the world as an example of why LRT should be build doesn’t make you more credible either. Heck, just a couple posts down you have a link to a piece about the problems with Waterloo’s LRT system that you cite as a reason to use LRT! Come on. LRT is a good transit mode but don’t try this one size fits all mentality. It’s just as asinine as Skytrain-only or cars-only.
Zwei replies: In fact LRT is a one size that fits all, with one exception transit lines with traffic flows greater than 20k pphpd.
According to leaked memos the Liberal party’s plan to build this bridge would have cost $12 billion.
https://www.biv.com/article/2017/5/ndp-says-massey-bridge-cost-12-billion/
Zwei replies: That number includes debt servicing and if I had used it, it would upset a lot of Liberals.
Ryan, you don’t get it. What we call light rail is a mixture from the very basic streetcar to light metro. By using light rail vehicles, means extreme flexibility in operation, something one doesn’t have with ALRT/ART SkyTrain. There are over 600 light rail operations now, operating around the world.
The problem in Waterloo is simple, it seems Bombardier Inc. cannot deliver an operating tram these days. Not good for business.
As for the Port Mann, it wasn’t incompetence old chum, but a deliberate attempt to divert tax monies to the friends of government and the Liberals have been caught out.