George Massey Tunnel - Construction, Maintenance and Replacement

Construction, Maintenance and Replacement

The 629 m (2,063 ft) long tunnel is made up of six precast concrete sections (length: 105 m, 345 ft; height: 7 m, 23 ft; width: 23 m, 75 ft). This was the first tunnel to use this precast construction method in North America. The sections were floated into position by barge and then sunk into a shallow trench that had been dug into the loose sand and silt of the river bed. The trench and tunnel sections were then covered over with a protective layer of rock - 500 pound stones filled 50 feet (15 m) out on each side, plus a bed of 1,500 pound stone on top. A structure located at each end of the tunnel houses the main ventilation and pumping equipment. Concrete retaining walls make up the approaches, which extend out about 400 m (¼ mi) from the ventilation buildings. At its lowest point the roadway is about 22 metres (72 ft) below sea level, making it the lowest section of roadway in Canada. The Fraser River flows into the Strait of Georgia about 5 kilometres (3 mi) downstream from the tunnel.

Due to the tunnel being designed and constructed in the 1950s, very little consideration was given to seismic factors. The river bed is a 600 m (2,000 ft) thick layer of sediment on top of bedrock. This sedimentary layer may liquefy during a major earthquake, leaving the tunnel with nothing to rest on, and thus vulnerable to total collapse. In recent years, as the awareness of the effect of serious seismic activity developed, an engineering assessment and subsequent retrofit project was initiated to increase the survivability of the tunnel in the event of a significant earthquake. This retrofit project started in the fall of 2004 and had been completed by the spring of 2006.

The tunnel was constructed for the British Columbia Toll Highways and Bridge Authority, and is now administered by the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation. It has not had a toll on it since the 1960s, when tolls were removed from all of the bridges and tunnels in the Lower Mainland (although tolls are now collected on the Golden Ears Bridge, completed in 2009, and will be collected on the future replacement Port Mann bridge). The initial toll was 25 cents; in 1964, George Massey became the last person to pay the toll, which was then one dollar.

On February 16, 2006, it was reported that the provincial government had plans to expand the tunnel's capacity, from four lanes to six, dubbed the "H99" project. There has been no progress on this score and contradictory government statements since then, so future upgrade are an uncertain prospect.

On September 28, 2012, Premier Christy Clark announced plans to replacing the aging tunnel within 10 years, addressing the congestion and safety issues currently plaguing the structure. On November 21, 2012, it was announced that the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure is leading a multi-stage planning initiative, including seeking public input on replacement options for the George Massey Tunnel to determine a number of options for its replacement.