Cut and cover

Construction of the Canada Line. This is the scene along Cambie on the corner of West King Edward looking north. This section of the tunnel was supposed to be done underground. This like all public projects whether it has private partners or not encountered cost overrun. To reduce cost it was agreed to eliminate four of the stations, two each in Vancouver and Richmond. Cost, however, continued to escalate. This called for further cost cutting measures. The construction consortium proposed to switch from full underground tunneling with no or very little disruptions to the residents and business to surface tunneling or cut and and cover as the official term on the section south of False Creek. They promised the disruption to business along the Cambie Street corridor to be minimal. I believe the impact was supposed to be two weeks per block. That was about a year ago give or take a few dump truck of earth.