If you can just wait eight more years, your commute across the Fraser River will improve dramatically.
OK, so that's not exactly how Geoff Freer characterized the situation, but the project director for the George Massey Tunnel replacement did confirm last week that everything is on schedule to have a new bridge in place by 2022.
Freer, who was one of the guest speakers at the Mayor's Industrial Business Breakfast, offered a number of insights for the crowd at the Delta Town & Country Inn last Friday on both the recently-opened South Fraser Perimeter Road and the crossing that can't come soon enough.
What struck me as much as anything were his comments about the changes in traffic patterns in the region over the last decade. Freer admitted it was long thought that a new crossing of the south arm of the river would simply transfer the congestion and result in longer lineups for the Oak Street Bridge, but those close to the situation don't believe that to be the case anymore.
He said less than half the traffic that goes through the tunnel actually ends up in Vancouver, so while a new bridge would serve city-bound commuters, it would also accommodate a considerable volume that stays in the Richmond-Delta-Surrey corridor.
Freer also said with the new bridge, which would be a cable-stayed span similar to the Alex Fraser, Ladner residents wouldn't lose the River Road exit, which is reassuring because it initially looked like that exit ramp wouldn't fit into the plans. The thought of having to follow the highway to Ladner Trunk Road, only to double back into the northern parts of town wasn't terribly appealing to many, so maintaining that exit is welcomed.
The new bridge is now in what's called project definition mode, which means engineers are still in the process of determining what it will look like and consequently how much it will cost. Determining driver demand decades into the future is a bit of a crystal ball-gazing exercise, but Freer said they're looking at both eight-and 10-lane configurations and it will definitely be built to accommodate light rail.
All the design work is expected to take another three years, so construction isn't scheduled to start until 2017. It will then be another five years, give or take, before the first vehicles traverse the shiny new bridge.
Eight years is an eternity for those stuck in traffic on a regular basis, but for once there's actually light at the end of the tunnel.
