Eby government terminates Massey Tunnel contractor agreement

VANCOUVER — The British Columbia government has terminated its agreement with the consortium selected to build a new eight-lane immersed-tube tunnel to replace the aging George Massey Tunnel, citing an inability to reach agreement on commercial terms for final construction..On Monday, the province insisted the $4.15 billion Fraser River Tunnel Project remains "on budget" and "on track" for completion in 2030, with major construction now expected to begin in 2027.Many have scoffed at those assurances, noting that post-pandemic inflation on materials, labour, and other costs have rendered the original $4.15 billion estimate severely out of touch with reality.Transportation Minister Mike Farnworth nevertheless said the government is exercising a built-in termination option in the Design and Early Works Agreement signed with Cross Fraser Partnership in September 2024.“While significant progress has been made on design and current construction work, agreement on the commercial terms for final construction of the tunnel was not reached,” the Ministry of Transportation and Transit said in a statement Monday.The revised approach will break the remaining work into multiple smaller competitive procurement packages, similar to the model used for the Surrey Langley SkyTrain, to increase competition and opportunities for local and Canadian contractors.Farnworth said the province has received “good value” from the work completed so far under the early agreement..According to the project’s official monthly status reports, approximately $450.2 million had been spent on the Fraser River Tunnel Project as of February 2026, up from $242.3 million as of March 2025. Monthly spending reached $30 million in February alone as design work, site investigations, and early construction activities advanced.The project is intended to replace the 65-year-old four-lane George Massey Tunnel on Hwy. 99 between Richmond and Delta with a modern, toll-free eight-lane crossing that includes dedicated transit lanes in each direction. The existing tunnel, built in 1959, has long faced concerns over seismic vulnerability, capacity constraints and traffic bottlenecks..Early construction work is continuing, including tree clearing, utility relocations, and site preparation on Deas Island.The government announced plans for the tunnel replacement in 2021 after cancelling a previous 10-lane bridge proposal.The NDP government cancelled the bridge project shortly after taking power in 2017, citing the need for "further review." Approximately $66–70 million in prior work and preparations was largely written off.BC Conservative transportation critic Harman Bhangu said the NDP’s decision to cancel the previous bridge plan has left commuters and businesses south of the Fraser “stuck paying the price” with no meaningful construction nearly a decade later.."Nearly a decade of delays, planning, studies, consultants, and bureaucracy... It’s now 2026! The replacement tunnel still isn’t under construction, the contractor has been fired, and the project is being retendered,” Bhangu said.BC Conservative Leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay said Delta families and commuters have every right to be fed up..“After more than four hundred and fifty million dollars of taxpayers’ money have already been spent, along with years of delay, the NDP government has terminated the Massey Tunnel replacement contract. Yet they claim that restarting the work through multiple separate contracts will neither cost more nor take any longer. This defies common sense.”

Eby government terminates Massey Tunnel contractor agreement

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