Quote:
Originally Posted by chowhou
Assuming UBCx is tunnelled until Pacific Spirit Park, the Jericho Lands take up 25% of the tunnelled part of the route. It's possible that we see the Jericho Lands cut-and-covered to save on TBM costs. If that's the case, then it probably makes more sense to stage on the Jericho lands rather than at UBC.
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Tunneling, per se is not the large cost of a RR. The vast majority are the stations, track, new cars, electrical systems, etc.
So it would actually be only a very small addition in costs to "go all the way" and have a tunnel come out on the center portion of University Boulevard.
But it would be an incredible time saver.
Keep going from Arbutus and you need one excavation pit somewhere in the 10th and Alma area. The Jericho lands come with their own population (and they are ten years from being built out) but you absolutely want to catch all the buses from Dunbar.
once the TBMs reach the new pit, you can refurb them there for the long climb to UB. You can also extract all the conveyor systems going back to Emily Carr, as you can simply the spoils at the new pit on 10th/Alma.
The tunnel would exit about 500 meters or so past Blanca. At that point, you haul the TBMs and brick up the entrance, waiting for the time when the politicians can divert enough money from their preferred projects and finish the job.
In the meantime, there is actually one hidden advantage in all of this. You can lay track for the first 300 meters and use it to store trains overnight, launching from there instead of from the yards somewhere in Timbucktoo.