Evergreen Line delayed to early 2017
Posted November 27, 2015 8:43 am.
Last Updated November 27, 2015 2:51 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TRI-CITIES (NEWS 1130) – The Evergreen Line has hit a major milestone, but the news comes with a catch.
Crews have finished boring the 2-km tunnel through part of Burnaby Mountain, but the rapid transit line itself won’t be up and running until early 2017.
The rapid transit extension will link Burnaby, Port Moody and Coquitlam to the existing SkyTrain system, and was originally scheduled to be in service by next summer. This is the second time the project has been delayed; the first time delay saw a promise of a fall, 2016 launch.
Despite that, the province is calling the project a success. Peter Fassbender, the minister responsible for TransLink defends the delay, saying this sort of thing is expected with such a large project. “I know that when you do a project of this magnitude, there’s always going to be challenges. But they’ve overcome them. We’re celebrating the success today.”
Fassbender says commuters and those affected by the construction will just have to be patient.
“Take the long-term view. This project is going to deliver transportation to the region. It is an amazing project. It’s had its challenges. But I know that it is going to serve the region and the people of this region very well.”
Evergreen Line project leader can’t guarantee there won’t be another delay in the project but expects it to stay on budget at $1.43 billion.
A boring machine given the name Alice drilled a tunnel from the Barnet Highway in Port Moody to Kemsley Avenue in Coquitlam. Transportation Minister Todd Stone says the project is now more than 75 per cent complete.
The province says there won’t be an extra hit to taxpayers for the delay; those costs are being picked up by the contractor.
UBC Professor Robin Lindsay is not surprised by the delay and says this is common with projects of that size.
“The results are that cost overruns have been typical going back to the 1920’s…for whatever reasons, the track record has not improved despite huge advances in engineering technology as well as geology, trying to figure out what sort of material will these boring machines be going through.”
