Skip to content
  1. Home
  2. Local News

Delta throwback: The last tunnel toll

The George Massey Tunnel was tolled for the first few years after it opened
Sandor Gyarmati
Sandor Gyarmati
george massey pays last toll at tunnel in 1964
George Massey, whose vision of a tunnel between Richmond and Delta became a reality in 1959, pays the last ever toll at the crossing. Delta Optimist file

It's throwback time.

The last toll on the Deas Island thruway was collected on March 31, 1964.

It was paid by former Socred MLA George Massey, who received a bronze medallion in return from toll collector Bill Aldous.

Also smiling for the camera was Highways Minister Phil Gaglardi.

Massey would pass away within days of this photo and the tunnel would eventually be named after him.

The crossing hasn't been tolled since.

The provincial government currently has no plan to add a toll to whatever crossing replaces the tunnel, which opened in 1959 and is to be decommissioned once a new structure is built.