Tsawwassen First Nation Chief Ken Baird was delayed getting to the province’s announcement of the decision for a $4.15-billion George Massey Tunnel replacement. He was caught in tunnel traffic, he said at the end of his remarks.

Commuters who have suffered through decades of increasing congestion, however, will have to wait another eight years for the new eight-lane, immersed-tube tunnel, unveiled on Wednesday by Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Rob Fleming, with an expected completion in 2030.

The modernized tunnel will include rapid-bus lanes to improve transit service, and separated cycling and pedestrian space, with associated road improvements for a total cost of $4.15 billion.

That is two lanes narrower than the $3.5-billion bridge crossing started by the previous B.C. Liberal government, which Premier John Horgan’s NDP scrapped in 2017. That project was due to be completed next year, three years sooner than the expected 2025 start date for construction on the newly announced replacement.

The tunnel option was heavily favoured during discussions about what would come after the bridge’s cancellation, but Delta South MLA Ian Paton, who sits on the opposition B.C. Liberal benches, was still bewildered by the decision.

“It’s taken four years of doing nothing about the George Massey Tunnel, and yet today, they’re trying to take some victory lap for something that may never, ever get an environmental approval,” Paton said.

The new project will require a new environmental review, which is expected to take three and a half years.

Fleming argued that the tunnel replacement project “is the right one for this region (and) the one that the region itself prioritized.”

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