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B.C. Conservative leader proposes bridge to replace George Massey Tunnel
B.C. Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson says his party would build a 10-lane bridge to replace the George Massey Tunnel if it forms government after the Oct. 24 election. The replacement plan has shifted between a bridge and an immersed-tube tunnel under successive governments.
The George Massey Tunnel, built in the 1950s, has been the subject of changing replacement plans under successive governments. B.C. Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson said he would build a 10-lane bridge to replace it if his party forms government after the Oct. 24 election.
The BC Liberals were working on a 10-lane bridge when they were last in government. After the BC NDP took power in 2017, it scrapped that plan and decided instead to build an eight-lane immersed-tube tunnel. Richmond city council opposed the bridge because it would have encroached on farmland and greenspace.
The B.C. Conservative announcement came Thursday morning. The party also said it would complete the new Surrey hospital in Cloverdale and build a new women’s and children’s hospital in Surrey.
“After nine years of David Eby and the NDP, British Columbia stopped building,” Doerkson said in a press release. “Families in the Lower Mainland are stuck in traffic every day because the NDP cancelled a bridge that should already be open. My government will build it, on time and on budget.”
The budget for the eight-lane tunnel has more than doubled, and its estimated cost is now more than $8 billion. The provincial government also dismissed its contractor in June.