Hwy 99 Fraser River Tunnel (George Massey Replacement) | Proposed

[moosejaw]

City of Richmond is still hung up on the seismic upgrades performed 10 years ago that were apparently guaranteed to extend the life of the tunnel 50 years. Don't know if that was true or not but from what i can tell the tunnel received a fire suppression system, curbwork, and cast in place concrete work along the length of the tunnel. This was done to ensure life safety procedures and there would be ample time to evacuate in case of an incident. The city of Richmond is led to believe that the $20m improvements performed 10 year ago is a concrete guarantee the tunnel is safe and can be twinned in its current fashion. Little do they realize that in a earthquake scenario the compacted soils that encase the current tunnel in addition to the 500# rock placed on top and on the sides can collapse and lose structural integrity during an earthquake which does not make this tunnel or even the notion of twinning the existing tunnel safe at all.

Again another counterpoint made by the City of Richmond is the Maas Tunnel. There are many comparisons to the Maas Tunnel in Amsterdam on which the GMT is based on. First the Maas Tunnel is not in a earthquake prone area. The Maas tunnel isn't an evacuation route. The Maas Tunnel isnt a limited access highway, its a city street similar to Cambie or Main Street. Of course its going to last longer as it sees less daily traffic and doesnt have as much truck traffic going through.

Another thing that bothers me is that the City of Richmond claims they were not consulted during the design development of the bridge. Well there were two rounds of public forums whree over 2000 individuals were engaged. Where was the city then? I imagine the public consultations included individuals from Richmond yet the city is maintaining they were never consulted when five options were presented and the majority of those consulted preferred the bridge?

At the end of the day people like Brodie and his council members want stoplights, they want frontage road quality highways transporting the masses through his districts, they dont want free-flowing arterials running rampant through his city. He even admitted it in his publications.

Again I stress the need for independent transportation consultants to weigh in and not politicians. Take all the facts into accounts. ALl the city of Richmond does is twists facts to suit its agenda. The Richmond councilwoman who lacks bluetooth in her Chevette really gets to me though.