{"id":739719,"date":"2026-06-16T04:13:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T04:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/739719\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T04:13:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T04:13:12","slug":"province-nixes-deal-with-contractor-on-george-massey-tunnel-replacement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/739719\/","title":{"rendered":"Province nixes deal with contractor on George Massey Tunnel replacement"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0B.C. government is terminating its deal with the design-build consortium\u00a0it had selected to replace the aging George Massey Tunnel beneath the Fraser River in Metro Vancouver, though it says the $4.15-billion project is still on track.<\/p>\n

The Transportation Ministry issued a statement Monday saying the province could not reach agreement with Cross Fraser Partnership on the commercial terms for the final construction of the eight-lane tunnel connecting Richmond and Delta.<\/p>\n

The province had been working with the consortium under a design and early works agreement since September 2024, and while the ministry said there has been “significant progress,” the government was exercising a termination option.<\/p>\n

Transportation Minister Mike Farnworth said\u00a0B.C. had received “good value from the contractor” and made steady progress with design, but the province was taking the project back to a competitive process to seek the best value for taxpayers.<\/p>\n

\"AB.C. Transportation Minister Mike Farnworth said the project was being retendered to provide the best value for taxpayers. (Mike McArthur\/CBC)<\/p>\n

The ministry statement said\u00a0B.C. would retender the work with a procurement strategy aimed at strengthening competition and allowing for more local contracts.<\/p>\n

It said the revised strategy would divide the remaining work into several packages, allowing a broader range of qualified firms to bid on portions of the project.<\/p>\n

“By design, our process has a pre-existing termination option in case we could not reach mutually acceptable terms. We are well placed to leverage improving market competitiveness,” Farnworth said in the statement.<\/p>\n

“We know the market is hungry for work on major infrastructure projects, and engagement with industry confirmed there is strong interest in competing for this project.”<\/p>\n

A LinkedIn page for the Cross Fraser Partnership indicates it is made up of Bouygues Construction Canada, Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas Canada and Pomerleau B.C. Representatives of the companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.<\/p>\n

The province said the tunnel had gone to market in 2023 as a single, large, progressive design-build procurement, and the revised model better reflects current market conditions, while ensuring continued momentum on the project.<\/p>\n

\"CarsTraffic passing through the George Massey tunnel on Highway 99 in British Columbia’s Lower Mainland. (Frederic Gagnon\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Early construction work started in January, including tree clearing and utility relocations, and it would continue while procurement for future phases of the project is underway, the ministry statement said.<\/p>\n

As a first step, it said requests would be issued to identify qualified proponents for key phases of the project.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0B.C. Environmental Assessment Office is expected to complete its review of the project before the end of this year and major construction is set to start in 2027, it said.<\/p>\n

The province announced its plan to replace the existing tunnel with a modern one in August 2021 with a target to open the new crossing in 2030.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":739720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-739719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=739719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}