An announcement about replacing the aging George Massey Tunnel will be made Wednesday before noon.
The business case for the replacement was completed more than half a year ago, but, last spring, the province said it had been in talks with the federal government about cost-sharing on the project.
The province was proposing to build either an eight-lane bridge or an eight-lane tunnel.
With the federal election underway, the Conservative Party also put out a release Tuesday saying its leader, Erin O’Toole, if elected to government, will “immediately move to get shovels in the ground” on large infrastructure projects including the replacement of the George Massey Tunnel.
In fact, the BC Liberals had a 10-lane bridge plan when they were in power to replace the aging tunnel, but the BC NDP government scrapped that plan in 2017 and went back to the drawing board to rethink the project.
Richmond city council opposed the 10-lane bridge because it would have encroached on greenspace and farmland and would have had a massive clover-leaf interchange on Steveston Highway.
The tunnel is one of the worst traffic gridlocks in B.C.
