It will be tolled, every single new bridge or even upgraded bridge going forward is going to be tolled. Infrastructure is now in place and collecting the money is a new business entity all to its own.

I dislike having to pay the tolls on the Port Mann & Golden Ears but honestly it's worth it, so much time saved.

I didnt watch office space until last year...but I recall watching this specific scene when it first came out hahaha

but thats the closest tunnel for my vtec sound testing.....

Would they ever consider leaving the tunnel in operation even after they build the bridge? Just for overflow or whatever?

If they upgrade the surrounding infrastructure and put in a proper bridge then by the time overflow would be necessary the tunnel would have fallen apart. The maintenance costs for the then obsolete tunnel post-bridge would obviously be prohibitive.

Best tunnel for the Hold Your Breath game will be no more. :okay:

They should take a page out of Florida's book and spend the money earned from tolls towards highway improvements. The tolls might have been somewhat of a nuisance, but the highways they were on are fucking smooth as fuck.

The one thing I've noticed about Hwy5 is that ever since they got rid of the tolls, the road quality has gone down quite a bit. Repainting the lines doesn't happen as quickly anymore, and more potholes are starting to litter the highway all year round. I'd be more than happy paying a toll again on that road if it means going back to how well the Coquihalla was fixed after every winter.

While I have far more reasons to believe this new bridge will be tolled, I want to bring it to everyone's attention that the Pitt River Bridge is a newly constructed (within the past 3 - 4 years at most?) 6 lanes bridge that is toll-free. It is definitely the exception rather than the norm, but at least it serves as a glimmer of hope that the Massey tunnel replacement bridge may not have a toll after all.

New Pitt Bridge is also a fraction of the size of the various Fraser crossings...

I think a better example would have been the new bypass road going from Delta Port to Surrey Port. That's a massive project and it's not tolled.

Only problem is, with so many on- and off-ramps and easily-accessed segments, tolling becomes either difficult, or very convoluted, as you'd need a toll plaza for each separate section. Otherwise, people would just bypass the tolled section on other surface roads, then get back on the Perimeter Road.

This IS done in several US cities - Chicago, in particular, has some tollways that have a toll plaza on each exit - but those tend to be pretty long segments, more than just a few miles.

do that during rush hour :fullofwin:
"who asphyxiates themselves to death first wins":ilied:

Yup, oh I know. The Pitt Rivers bridge was a pretty small project, and it's a small bridge. I don't know the final cost of that project but I can't imagine it was big enough to justify a toll in order to cross it.

The one project that I still think should have been tolled is the S2S. A camera toll structure just North of Squamish would have been best. It's akin to the Coq; it's not a vital route for anyone, and those who do take it are typically going on vacation to Whistler or Blackcomb.

Per Wikipedia:
"The Pitt River Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge that spans the Pitt River between Port Coquitlam and Pitt Meadows in British Columbia, Canada. The bridge is part of Highway 7, carrying Lougheed Highway across the river. The current bridge opened on October 4, 2009. The bridge includes a 380 m cable stay bridge structure, 126 m of multi-span approaches, a 50 m interchange structure and approximately 2 km of grade construction. Total project cost for the bridge was $200 million."

That's a tricky one, because there are Squamish residents who work in Whistler/Pemberton, and vice-versa. I suspect there are fewer people who commute between Squamish and Vancouver, so if you're mainly after the tourist/visitor dollar, probably somewhere just south of Squamish would be preferable.

Not that it would ever actually happen, as much sense at it makes.

The thing that really gets me with this proposed bridge is the frakin' Richmond mayor dissing the whole idea because "it will only move the congestion down the road"... well sure, for people heading into Vancouver. What about for the afternoon rush and people LEAVING Vancouver by way of Richmond? Rush hour on 99 south to the tunnel regularly gets backed the fuck up to Cambie Road even when there's NOT a crash in the tunnel.

It's the same narrow thinking so many nay-sayers applied to the Port Mann project: "If you built it, they will come!" Well guess what, dumbass, if you build it, they can also leave.

There really needs to be a link from Hwy1 to hwy99 for people going to YVR from the rest of BC. There really isn't a direct highway route, you have to snake your way either through Langley or New Westminster. The current Vancouver road infrastructure is completely fucked, doesn't help with the terrain but with only one major hwy the bottlenecks are retarded.

George Massey?s son fights to keep tunnel open - BC | Globaln...orews.ca

Always a good idea to have a back-up crossing, but I don't think it will ever happen. Maintaining two crossings in the same location, especially with an aging one, will not be financially acceptable...or, at least this will be what they tell us ;)

I would smack Gregor if I was there when he said that quote...

I'd smack Gregor for being Gregor at any given opportunity....

Maybe he could push to have the tunnel kept open as dedicated bike lanes?

Name the bridge "The George Massey Bridge." Done.

How is this "ulterior motive" a bad thing? If you can kill two birds with one stone, for the same price, all the better.

Seriously. Shut the fuck up, Moonbeam. Not everyone can use transit for work, and not everyone has easy access to transit. Focus on the big problems, and then focus on the smaller ones. You need the infrastructure in place to handle the express buses and precious bike lanes before you can expand on transit.


Yeah, it'd be nice to have the tunnel still running for either a secondary crossing in case the bridge is closed due to an accident, or to use it for either transit express lanes or truck traffic. However, the tunnel is nearing the end of it's life and will need a bunch of upgrading (again) in order to keep it open for another few decades.

BIKE LANES FOR ALL FOR EVERYWHERE!!!

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Gregor lives, works, shops, etc all within a short bike ride. I doubt he steps foot outside his little granola bubble more that once a month.

Buddy can shut the fuck up and let the rest of the lower mainland live their lives without his fucking comments on how WE all should be living.

For that matter, get the other "interested parties" to kick in for the project, since they'll benefit from it.

Or does that make too much sense?

I still love the suggestion someone made to have CN and the Port chip in on a Patullo replacement that would include rail support, thereby eliminating the rail swing bridge.