Slow down

It is heartening to see Work Safe BC and the people responsible for the Canada Line project to remind drivers along Cambie to slow down during construction. However we, the motorists, know or have enough common sense to avoid the area entirely. As a matter of fact enough people had avoided the construction zone that many businesses are closing their doors after struggling for the last two years.

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.

Public transit

Due to the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games the rapid transit line from Downtown Vancouver to Richmond and Vancouver International Airport, known as the Canada Line, bumped the Evergreen Line connecting Vancouver to the northeast part of Lower Mainland off the funding list. The construction of this 19 km project has dissected the city two parts along Cambie.

The original proposal and plan was to have all the tunneling done underground. Because of rising cost VANOC and the provincial government had agreed to the construction consortium's proposal of eliminating a station along the line and employing the cut and fill construction method. The consequence is Cambie now resembles a war zone with many businesses closing its doors.

The photo above is the exist of one of the tunnels through Downtown Vancouver. The tunnel for the Skytrain heading the opposite direction will be underneath this. Not sure how it'll connect to the existing lines' terminal down the block, the Seabus Terminal.

The is the view facing the tunnel. The continuation of the line to link up with the existing two lines.