In a move that will not surprise Minister of Transportation Todd Stone has come out in favour of the Mayor of Delta’s missive to the other Mayors in the region that the Massey Tunnel needs to be replaced for safety reasons.
Now no one is going to argue with the safety of our first responders who do an amazing and selfless job. And Minster Stone notes: “I want to thank Delta fire and emergency Chief Dan Copeland, Delta Chief of police Neil Dubord and all Delta first responders for the work they do, day in and day out, as they deal with emergency situations at the George Massey Tunnel.
But wait for it-then Minister Stone reiterates his rationale why a 10 lane 3.5 billion dollar bridge needs to be built on agricultural class 1 farmland floodplain at this location-and he’s expanding that safety card. “The 10-lane bridge will be safer for motorists, safer and more accessible for first responders, and safer in the event of an earthquake.Their recent report to council highlights one of the main reasons we’re moving ahead with the replacement of the tunnel – the safety of the travelling public who use this crossing every day. The safety of motorists on our highways is my ministry’s number one priority, and it’s clear that a new bridge to replace the tunnel will improve safety for the 80,000 motorists who travel this corridor.”
And as a salvo to all the other mayors and Metro Vancouver and pretty much everyone that is questioning the location and rationale for this multi-billion dollar bridge at this location, the Minister responds: “The new bridge will be built to modern seismic standards to provide a lifeline connection across the Fraser River, replacing the seismically vulnerable tunnel. As well, Highway 99 will be upgraded to modern engineering standards to increase safety for drivers and for communities along the route. This includes longer merge lanes, wider travel lanes, improved sightlines and increased vertical clearances at overpasses”.
Just in case there is any doubt, the Province is now saying that twinning the tunnel would be more expensive than building the new bridge. So there is a new reason to add to the others about why a less intrusive approach is not being taken. Apparently a new tunnel would also have more detrimental environmental consequences on land and the Fraser River too.
This multi billion dollar bridge is the Provincially driven train that no reason or rationale from the region or the region’s mayors can stop. The project commences in 2017.
Can someone call a referendum on that?
We should start calling it the Massive Bridge. I have no problems with twinning or replacing the tunnel to improve safety, but ten lanes (plus sidewalks so really 12 lanes) far exceeds current and future requirements.
Seriously ? I thought we want to get larger vessels further up the Fraser River as MetroVan is Canada’s only sizable port FOR ALL OF CANADA. N-Van and Vancouver is hard to expand, so that leaves Fraser River ports. Thus more depth is required. Plus more industrial and residential expansion south of the Fraser needing more lanes. Plus one and off ramps, HOV lanes and maybe one day AV-only lanes .. perhaps too big for 2025 .. yes .. but not for 2035 or 2055 or 2088 when MetroVan will have 6M+ people approaching 10M by 2100 !
Of course we know one of the main reasons for the bridge is for tanker traffic, which the province is refusing to publicly acknowledge.
Sorry… what?
They wouldn’t spend that much money on just the Jet Fuel Terminal for YVR. It would be far easier just to move that one terminal on the other side of the tunnel if it was the only concern.
In general the shipping industry is moving up to larger ships because they’re more fuel efficient and far cheaper to operate on a per unit basis. Every type of ship is generally getting larger, including the ones that will be using the container port, the auto shipment port, and the new grain terminals on the Fraser.
Next thing you’ll tell me is that thermal coal is worth exporting internationally. The collapse of coal prices got rid of that pipe dream.
@urbinflux, the Tilbury Island LNG pipe-dream, er, plant, is just upriver from the bridge. I’m guessing that’s what @Colin was referring to??
@A You must not be very well read.
What you refer to as a pipe dream has operated since the 1970s. Tilbury also isn’t an export terminal. They’ve built a second storage tank, but the facility there is mostly about storage and some local uses of LNG.
They have tanks here to satisfy peaks in domestic consumption. Everyone’s heaters get turned on at once? Let some LNG boil off and add it into the gas lines. It’s cheaper to have some nearby storage than to expand the gas lines to meet peak demand. LNG is used for storage because they can fit a lot more in a tank as a liquid than as a gas.
I guess that Hawaiian Electric export contract that fell through was for “Metro Van use only”? Good thing the expansion with the second tank wasn’t specifically undertaken to satisfy export demand….
Before casting aspersions, you might want to make sure you have your facts straight. Let’s keep it civil.
A proposed export terminal is on the other side of the bridge in TFN land.
The WesPac terminal isn’t very big. Which makes sense because Tilbury isn’t a big enough operation to support it.
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“8. What is the size of ships that will be using the Jetty?
The bunkering ships that transport the LNG from the Jetty to local LNG-fueled ships are small – 2,000 m³ to 4,000 m³ in size – no larger than other barges that currently transit the Fraser River.
The Jetty can also accommodate LNG carrier ships – 40,000 m³ to 90,000 m³ in size. This is the same size range or smaller than the existing vessels currently operating on the Fraser River. The ships calling on our jetty will be much smaller than LNG carriers used in northern BC, which can be up to 265,000 m³ in size.”
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So… LNG barges delivering to freighters?
@Thomas, it sounds like we could use some new ports for ALL OF CANADA then. Resiliency! And by the time they’re built out, fossil fuels will be a fading memory. So they can skip that nonsense just as the third world went straight to cell phones.
What other Pacific port would you suggest ? Kitimat ? Prince Rupert ? Annex Seattle ? Squamish ?
Not too many choices shipping goods to Asia. You expect that to not grow anymore ? We will import less from Asia and they buy less from us ? Why ?
Electric boats are a while off. Perhaps to Sunshine Coast & Bowen Island for a short distance. Here’s one, in Norway: http://newatlas.com/norway-electric-car-ferry/25756/ Not exactly massive. Maybe even to V Island to appease the green voters there at triple the crossing fees (let’s see how well they perceive that). Perhaps nuclear driven boats. [ btw: i searched e-boats but that term is already taken for formerly German Schnell Boote or dubbed Enemy Boats by the Allies .. we can debate that topic offline if you want)
Peak oil use expected now post 2040 btw even by IEA http://www.wsj.com/articles/iea-seespeak-oil-demand-after-2040-1479283354 .. or here http://seekingalpha.com/article/4025053-imminent-peak-oil-demand-myth likely later in a post-Trump world with Trump like figures rising all over Europe as the population had it with mushy socialist policies pushed down their throats.
Canada is on a march to over 100M people by about 2100 which means 10M+ in the Lower Mainland. Likely 2-4 times the harbor capacity eventually in and around Fraser River as they reduce N-Van and Vancouver ports due to real estate values and shift them to Fraser River ports. The view from Yaletown II (built on what is now Vancouver container port) of north shore mountains surely beats the view across the Fraser River.
News Flash Beyer!
Trump can’t make climate change go away by convincing you its a Chinese hoax. The longer we delay action the sooner, and more disruptively, we’ll have to be off of fossil fuels.
The climate is changing. Get used to it. More biking won’t help. Much debate still to be had: http://business.financialpost.com/fp-comment/judith-curry-an-unsettled-climate-for-climate-summit
There are other priorities for the $s like clean water or clean air. Tax particles, not CO2.
Thomas: The debate to be had is about mitigation, not about whether or not climate change is predominantly caused by human activities. Instead of promoting former scientists like Curry who now like to create confusion for personal profit, and reading two year old newspaper articles, take a look at trusted sources.
http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
Also, the US military are very concerned about the destabilization affects caused by climate change. It will be interesting to see how this plays out with a denier in the oval office. Here is a link to one article: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-climatechange-idUSKCN11K0BC
Jeff sends us to a link edited by a young woman that races dune buggies in the California desert. (Check her Facebook photos). Four year ago she was studying at Cal Poly in Pomona. Now she’s influencing opposition to multi-mode transportation infrastructure in Canada.
She always wanted to tell us that the world was about to end and it’s all our fault. So she headlines her NASA blog with the proud declaration, “fact”. Mommy is so proud.
A couple of years ago she wrote:
“Studying towards Bachelor’s of Science, Aiming at a career in a non-profit organization whose focus is on climate change and/or other environmental concerns. ”
She’d heard before about that thing called ‘climate change’. She knew it was good money spinner in some safe government office for someone with an easy BA and she wanted in.
“Jeff sends us to a link edited by a young woman…”
I sent you to NASA. You know, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The ones who do science. And your objection isn’t on the science, but rather that you don’t like their web page developer? Is it because she is female? Or because she is from California? What does any of that possibly have to do with the science? Or are you just trying to push every button you can think of to throw doubt on what is a clear global consensus?
Spare us.
NASA’s vision is to reach for new heights. Don’t go reaching for new lows.
“a young woman that races dune buggies in the California desert. (Check her Facebook photos”
If you think the background of the person providing information is relevant, why do you post under a pseudonym Eric? The double standard is beyond hypocritical and shows that you can’t live by your own rules. What are you afraid of?
The degree humans have influenced or will influence is undecided and requires more debate, says premier climate scientist Judith Curry, amid Trump’s anticipated cuts to IPCC http://business.financialpost.com/fp-comment/president-elect-trumps-great-climate-change-hoax-is-that-he-talks-like-a-pretty-green-president-after-all Much money ill spent.
( I linked an old article .. here is the one I had meant to link ) .. Editor: you may remove my post above.
“The degree humans have influenced or will influence is undecided and requires more debate, says premier climate scientist Judith Curry, amid Trump’s anticipated cuts to IPCC”
No she doesn’t. From your link.
“Climate has always changed and will continue to do so; the key questions are to what extent humans have contributed to the recent warming, and whether humans can do anything to significantly change the trajectory of future warming by eliminating the emission of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels. These are issues that are hotly debated by scientists, engineers, economists and policy-makers.”
At best she may be calling for more research. She states this issue is debated. Nowhere does she call for more debate in your linked article. When you misrepresent the facts on an important topic and others have to spend time to point out the error, you’re ‘mooching’ other people’s time, as you could easily fact check the source yourself and present a non-misleading post. Moochy-mooch-mooch.
The paper doesn’t even get the cutline right on the picture at the top of the story. They claim Peruvian shamans performed a good luck ritual for Donald Trump. Quite the opposite.
“As Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump battle for votes on a frenzied final day of campaigning, Peruvian shamans make their own choice: they called on the gods to ‘punish’ Donald Trump so that he would not become the next president of the United States.”
https://youtu.be/FG5eK6nc8eI
“My one-time lecture-circuit companion, Dr. Judith Curry, Chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech, has now taken the crown as the most debunked person on the science blogosphere, which is quite a feat considering the competition. ”
https://thinkprogress.org/judith-curry-abandons-science-e13059a66c99#.1ekaq3c0z
What a joke. Pathetic really.
@Jeff, We do not why you brought up the gender issue. Perhaps you want to. Dr. Judith Curry is also a woman, is that why? Dr. Curry was celebrating her 40 years as a highly decorated and published climate scientist, right around the time your Climate Change bloggers were graduating with their BAs. Your blogger prides herself on being good at video production.
It always amazes us when people consider a communications blogging team aggregating Climate Scare news clips under the NASA letterhead is what they must think, rather than accept the science from a scientist.
It’s obviously just the packaging. The NASA branding is so well entrenched in the literally starry eyes of those that want to believe. It’s the real thing…dum de dum.
I’m not about to dig around to find out what Judith Curry’s decorations are, but I will point out that by invoking them, you have tossed aside the talking point that NASA’s credibility is a question of branding. Any legitimacy for either comes from the same scientific community. What is notable is how many equally decorated scientists don’t accept Curry’s ‘science’ and have stated so publicaly. Good luck finding that same level of skepticism re: NASA from within the same system you are trying to use as the bulwark of your faith in her.
Eric: I didn’t bring up gender, or age, that was you. We can only guess as to why you thought it was relevant. I also didn’t bring up a blog, that was you again. I provided a link to a page of evidence at nasa.gov, the official site of NASA. You then went to a separate blog run by a NASA communications team, and then attacked the web site editor. Is that SOP when you can’t speak to the evidence that NASA presents?
Look at the science, not the personalities. Judith Curry won’t, which is why she is widely derided as having abandoned the science she built her earlier career on.
“MetroVan is Canada’s only sizable port FOR ALL OF CANADA”
It sounds like we should diversify and make other ports like Prince Rupert and Churchill a bigger piece of the puzzle, prepping for a NW passage option many shippers will be eager to use. Good jobs spread across the country, more options for customers, and redundancy in case of, oh I don’t know EARTHQUAKES!!!!!
have a nice day
Author
Reblogged this on Sandy James Planner.
Stone says ““The new bridge will be built to modern seismic standards to provide a lifeline connection across the Fraser River, replacing the seismically vulnerable tunnel.”
I have a serious question about this – aside from the obvious one that you never entirely know if a structure will survive a quake until it has actually happened as there are too many variables involved.
If the rationale for building this bridge is to ensure it will survive The Big One, I want to know what exactly is on either side of the bridge that is expected to play a critical role in post-quake disaster recovery.
Is this bridge essential to bring disaster relief from Delta north to Richmond? Or from Richmond down to Delta?
Aside from BC Ferries, the landfill, and the Tsawwassen Mills Mall, what critical post-quake infrastructure is down there that needs this level of secured access?
Well, there is the Delta Hospital and another hospital down the road in White Rock. Also, the Arnott Substation on Ladner Trunk Road is the link to 368kv of electric power to Vancouver Island. A medium sized airport in Boundary Bay. The main road and rail connections to the US.
Perhaps it will be used by skateboarders to travel from one side of the river to other to take advantage of the buckled post-quake roads that no one will be able to drive on.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3955576/Skateboarders-use-roads-damaged-New-Zealand-earthquake-ramps.html