The Fraser River crossing question: what replacing the George Massey Tunnel means for Richmond

The road under the Fraser River that Richmond drivers take every day is at the centre of a decision that will be made by BC's new provincial government within weeks of taking office.

The George Massey Tunnel on Highway 99 connects Richmond to Delta. The BC Conservative Party, which won the October 24 provincial election, has promised to cancel the $8.5 billion tunnel replacement project already under construction and build a 10-lane bridge instead. Experts and engineers are publicly disagreeing about whether that switch makes sense, and the numbers involved are large enough to affect what gets built, and when, for years.

What is happening right now

Early construction on the tunnel replacement began in January 2026, according to the Vancouver Sun. Workers have cleared land, moved utilities, built access roads and started preparation for the casting basin where tunnel tube segments would be made. The Richmond News reports that about 200 workers are on the site, and the workforce was expected to increase by 30 more soon.

The Transportation Investment Corp. monthly status report for June 2026 records total project spending of $580.7 million as of that date, with $37.5 million spent in June alone. UBC Sauder School of Business professor Werner Antweiler told the Vancouver Sun that spending would reach $700 million by November.

The outgoing NDP government has not halted work. Premier-designate Lorne Doerkson told the Vancouver Sun this week that the incoming Conservatives are "not actually in power and not in a position to make any decisions with respect to the workforce that are there," but said a decision will come shortly after the new government is sworn in on November 20.

Why Richmond is at the centre of this

Highway 99 and the Massey Tunnel are not just a regional route. The Richmond News reports that 60 percent of northbound traffic on Highway 99 goes to Richmond, with only 40 percent continuing to Vancouver. For residents and businesses in Richmond, the tunnel is one of the main ways people and goods move each day.

Mayor Rob Howard, whose platform included a promise to improve traffic flow, has not yet made a public statement on the Conservatives' bridge plan.

The case for a bridge

Geoff Freer was project director for the original bridge proposal from 2012 until 2017, when the NDP government cancelled it. Freer, now CEO of the Firth Group, told the Richmond News a bridge is both faster to predict and cheaper to build than a tunnel in the conditions along the Fraser River.

"When you look at digging a trench in the Fraser River and floating tunnel sections into place, in a moving river, with salmon, and you look at a bridge that spans the entire river, it's pretty plain that a tunnel doesn't make sense," Freer told the Richmond News.

He said the original bridge design could be taken out of files and updated, noting that it had already received its environmental assessment certificate. The main reason that certificate was required was for removing the old tunnel, not for the bridge structure itself, Freer said.

Freer also cited the original consultation process: 1,000 people at five environmental review open houses, 570 public submissions, 1,500 comments from a working group and 6,000 visitors at a project information office between 2014 and 2017.

The original bridge also had the support of emergency responders and the public, Freer said. He added that the soil conditions and tidal movement in the Fraser River make the tunnel project far riskier to build.

The case for staying with the tunnel

Anthony Perl, a professor of urban studies and political science at Simon Fraser University, told the Vancouver Sun the switch could become another expensive, politically motivated white elephant for the province. He pointed to BC's record of large cost overruns: Site C nearly doubled to $16 billion, and the fast ferries more than doubled to $463 million before they were sold for $20 million.

Antweiler told the Vancouver Sun that switching to a bridge would require restarting the environmental assessment process and new consultations with First Nations, adding two to four years to the project. That means completion would shift from 2031 to somewhere between 2033 and 2035. Any delay also means more inflation on construction costs, he said.

Antweiler said that while some work already done could be used for a bridge, other work, such as piles already driven for the tunnel, would need to be removed.

"There's no question that we'd be throwing away money," Perl told the Vancouver Sun.

The federal government has said its $3 billion contribution will be available whether the crossing is a bridge or a tunnel, Federal Minister of Transport Steven MacKinnon confirmed at an October 30 announcement, according to the Richmond News.

What comes next

The tunnel project was on track to receive its environmental assessment certificate by the end of 2026, according to the Vancouver Sun.

The new BC Conservative government takes office on November 20. Doerkson has said he will decide what happens to the tunnel project shortly after that date.

Workers on the site and their union have called for a discussion before any decision is made. Bryan Railton, business manager for the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 115, told the Vancouver Sun that the workforce has had no direction to halt work and that there is "a lot of uncertainty and angst among the project workers right now."

Richmond residents can follow the decision at /bc/richmond-2026/news. The new government's announcement, once made, will determine whether the tunnel replacement continues on its current timeline or restarts as a bridge project.