Is it back? B.C. Conservatives vow to build 10-lane Massey bridge

Remember this? The B.C. Conservative party is promising to bring back a plan for a 10-lane bridge between Richmond and Delta, first proposed by the Liberal government in 2017. Photo by Government of B.C.

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B.C. Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson said Thursday his government would revive a decade-old plan to build a 10-lane bridge between Richmond and Delta, citing years of mismanagement of the Massey Tunnel replacement project by the NDP.

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Doerkson said he would scrap the NDP’s plan to build an eight-lane tunnel, even as early construction ramps up on the site. The tunnel plan, he said, has stalled repeatedly, hurt B.C.’s economy and made life miserable for commuters.

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A bridge would cut commutes by up to 30 minutes and get goods moving more efficiently, he said.

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“Families in the Lower Mainland are stuck in traffic every day because the NDP cancelled a bridge that should already be open,” Doerkson said in a news release. “My government will build it, on time and on budget.”

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The Conservative party said details about how much their bridge proposal would cost or when it would be completed will be released later in their platform. But the party insisted their proposal “would cost less, already has an environmental certificate, and will be built sooner using experts here in British Columbia.”

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NDP Leader David Eby said starting from scratch at this stage is “lunacy.”

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“There are 200 workers on the site of the tunnel beginning construction,” Eby said at a party press conference in Surrey. “You drive past, you can see the big metal structures going up. That’s the tunnel construction that’s underway.

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“Now here we have the Conservative leader again. No plan. He’s going to cancel that, send all those workers home. Start from scratch with a new plan, new environmental assessment, new procurement, new contractors — I don’t know, years, two years, four years?”

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One of the unions representing workers on the project called Doerkson’s idea of going back to the drawing board “reckless and wasteful.”

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“If Doerkson is serious about this, he’s showing a fundamental lack of understanding on the procurement and construction of major infrastructure,” said Bryan Railton, business manager for the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 115.

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Railton also said scrapping the tunnel would put a $3 billion funding commitment from the federal government at risk.

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The Massey Tunnel on Highway 99 is now the most congested corridor in the province, said Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie. Photo by Nick Procaylo /PNG

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The bridge announcement came a day after the Conservatives jumped on a memo leaked to CTV News this week suggesting the 2026 provincial budget hid a $4 billion cost overrun for the tunnel replacement.

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In February, the NDP government’s budget said the Highway 99 tunnel was on track to cost $4.3 billion. But a memorandum from the premier’s office two months earlier warned the project’s cost had more than doubled.