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Richmond Chamber of Commerce president Dan Baxter says while his organization is pleased to see progress on planned Highway 99 improvements, a plan for the Massey tunnel replacement should also be a priority.
Photo courtesy Richmond Chamber of Commerce
Chamber responds to Highway 99 improvements
Published 4:38 PDT, Tue June 22, 2021
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The Richmond Chamber of Commerce and its president Dan Baxter are happy to see the plans to improve Highway 99—but also want to see a plan to replace the Massey tunnel.
“The George Massey Tunnel should be the province’s first priority for infrastructure investment,” says Baxter. “The existing tunnel was opened in 1959. It’s not only woefully under-capacity, it’s also seismically unsafe. The Richmond chamber has been a strong advocate for a replacement to this crossing for over a decade. While the projects announced today address real concerns and will align with the eventual replacement, we are ready to see the province move forward on building a new crossing.”
The original plan for a 10-lane bridge was put on hold following the 2017 election. The province then ordered an independent review and consultation with local mayors. B.C.’s ministry of transportation and infrastructure received the resulting business case for a proposed replacement of the tunnel on Dec. 17, 2020. Detailed in the case were the two shortlisted options for the replacement: an eight-lane immersed tube tunnel, and an eight-lane bridge. A decision between the two options is yet to be announced. The original project was set to be completed in 2022.
“It’s hard to overstate the importance of this crossing to Richmond,” says Baxter. “It impacts a worker’s ability to get to their job, parents’ abilities to pick their children up from daycare on time, countless hours for service workers and transportation professionals, who often must make multiple crossings a day, and so much more. Today is a step forward—now we’re looking for those next steps.”
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