The George Massey Tunnel (often referred to as the Massey Tunnel) is a highway traffic tunnel in the Metro Vancouver region of southwestern British Columbia carrying Highway 99 beneath the south arm of the Fraser River. It is located approximately 20 km (12.4 mi) south of the city centre of Vancouver, British Columbia, and approximately 30 km (18.6 mi) north of the Canada–United States border at Blaine, Washington. Construction, costing approximately $16.6 million in 1959 ($439.4 million in 2025), began on the tunnel in March 1957, and it was opened to traffic on May 23, 1959 as the Deas Island Tunnel. Queen Elizabeth II attended the official opening ceremony of the tunnel on July 15, 1959. It carries a four-lane divided highway under the south arm of the Fraser River estuary, joining the City of Richmond to the north with the City of Delta to the south. It is the only road tunnel below sea level in Canada, making its roadway the lowest road surface in Canada. The Massey Tunnel was the first to use immersed tube technology in British Columbia. The tunnel forms part of Highway 99. It is named for Nehamiah "George" Massey, a former Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. He represented Delta between 1956 and 1960, and was a long-time advocate of a permanent crossing to replace the Ladner Ferry that crossed the south arm of the Fraser River. The tunnel was renamed the George Massey Tunnel in 1967, three years after Massey died. It is still sometimes referred to by its previous name, the Deas Island Tunnel. Dangerous goods are not allowed to pass through the tunnel.
Earlier proposals Winter ice floes and spring flooding, which made ferry navigation hazardous, prompted the demand for a bridge. In 1927, the BC legislature authorized the Fraser River Bridge Company to build a toll bridge linking Ladner to Lulu Island. In 1931, despite opposition that wanted the crossing located at New Westminster, the province fixed the site of the proposed crossing at or near Deas Island. The Municipality of Richmond, engaging the Ladner Bridge Company, submitted to government plans for the $2,600,000 toll bridge. That year, the federal government authorized construction of connecting highways, financing was in place, and preliminary construction work commenced. Ongoing opposition from the New Westminster municipality, and a change in the provincial government in 1933, changed the proposed location in 1934 to become the Pattullo Bridge at New Westminster.
Configuration
The tunnel is a single tube that is subdivided with a concrete wall, each side containing two traffic lanes. The typical traffic flow has two northbound lanes in the east tube and two southbound lanes in the west tube. On January 28, 1981, a reversible lane system was introduced to meet increasing traffic demand in the tunnel. A bus lane was also added to the approaches a few months earlier as part of the $2.5 million program. At peak rush traffic periods, a reversible lane system is used, with a series of swing gates deployed that direct traffic in one direction to a single lane, while increasing the other direction to three lanes. Morning rush has three lanes northbound (inbound to Vancouver) and evening rush has three southbound lanes (outbound from Vancouver).
Construction and maintenance The tunnel is 629 m (2,064 ft) long and made up of six precast concrete sections (length: 344 ft (104.9 m); height: 24 ft (7.3 m); width: 78 ft (23.8 m)). The sections were floated into position by barge and then sunk into a shallow trench that had been dug into the loose sand and silt of the river bed. The trench and tunnel sections were then covered over with a protective layer of rock—500-pound (230 kg) stones filled 50 feet (15.24 m) out on each side, plus a bed of 1,500-pound (680 kg) stones on top. A structure located at each end of the tunnel houses the main ventilation and pumping equipment. Concrete retaining walls make up the approaches, which extend out about 400 m (1,312 ft) from the ventilation buildings. At its lowest point the roadway is about 22 metres (72 ft) below sea level, making it the lowest section of roadway in Canada. The Fraser River flows into the Strait of Georgia about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) downstream from the tunnel. Due to the tunnel being designed and constructed in the 1950s, very little consideration was given to seismic factors. The river bed is a 600 m (1,969 ft) thick layer of sediment on top of bedrock. This sedimentary layer may liquefy during a major earthquake, leaving the tunnel with nothing to rest on, and thus vulnerable to total collapse. In the early 2000s, as the awareness of the effect of serious seismic activity developed, an engineering assessment and subsequent retrofit project was initiated to increase the survivability of the tunnel in the event of a significant earthquake. This retrofit project started in late 2004 and had been completed in November 2006. In the interest of providing active protection for commuters from the danger earthquakes pose to the tunnel, an earthquake early warning system called Shakealarm was installed and commissioned in 2009. This was the first application of a commercialized earthquake early warning system (EEWS) to protect critical infrastructure in North America. Capable of detecting earthquakes with seconds to minutes of warning time the installation on George Massey Tunnel is designed to close the gates at either end of the tunnel so that no one can enter if a dangerous quake is inbound, and those already inside can exit as normal before shaking begins. The tunnel was constructed for the British Columbia Toll Highways and Bridge Authority, and is now administered by the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation. It has not had a toll on it since the 1960s, when tolls were removed from all of the bridges and tunnels in the Lower Mainland. The initial toll was 25 cents; on March 31, 1964, George Massey became the last person to pay the toll, which was then $1.
Non-motorized tunnel use
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
