The BC NDP scrapped a bridge plan in 2017 and instead planned an immersed tube tunnel.
A bridge? A tunnel? A bridge?
The plan to replace the George Massey Tunnel, built in the 1950s, has changed under successive governments.
And now, B.C. Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson said he will build a 10-lane bridge to replace the tunnel if his party forms government after the Oct. 24 election.
The BC Liberals were working on replacing the tunnel with a 10-lane bridge when they were last in government, but when the BC NDP came to power in 2017, they scrapped that plan and decided instead to build an eight-lane immersed tube tunnel.
The bridge was opposed by Richmond city council because it would have encroached on farmland and greenspace.
The B.C. Conservative announcement came on Thursday morning. At the same time, they announced they’d complete the new Surrey hospital in Cloverdale and build a new women and children’s hospital in Surrey.
“After nine years of David Eby and the NDP, British Columbia stopped building,” said Doerkson 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 more than doubled and is now estimated to cost more than $8 billion.
The provincial government also got rid of its contractor in June.
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