Proposal

Proposed tunnel

could cost $500 million

THE CHAIRMAN of the North Vancouver Chamber of Commerce’s transporta- tion committee has submit- ted a plan to the chamber calling for the construction of a 21-km tunnel through North Shore mountains as part of an alternative toll highway link from the Lower Mainland to Squamish.

By Timothy Renshaw Managing Editor

But opposition to the plan has already been raised by representa- tives of the Greater Vancouver Regional District and North Van- couver District.

Zoltan Kuun, of Zoltan Kuun & Associates engineering firm, estimates that the construction cost of the tunnel route, which would run from the north end of Capilano Road in North Van- couver to just north of Porteau on Howe Sound, would be between $390 million and $500 million.

And he advocates having the route built by a private sector construction firm, which would then have the right to levy a user-pay toll on the road.

The project, he said, would both stimulate the local eccnomy by providing spinoff jobs and spare the taxpayer the cost of building any of the other provin- cial highway alternatives.

Said Kuun,‘“‘l’m a firm believer in the user-pay principle.””

Kuun submitted his proposal to the chamber in the wake of the recent slides on the Squamish Highway that closed the road for

13 days, and the subsequent calls . for another highway link to the.

Squamish-Whistler area.

A third slide late Tuesday night closed the highway for an addi- tional eight hours.

The tunnel route, Kuun said, would be a better alternative than the three other Squamish highway routes that have been studied because it is the most direct and because it would pose no en- vironmental threat to either of the North Shore’s reservoirs.

Kuun said it would also be at least 17 km shorter than the ex- isting Squamish Highway.

All three of the other alter- natives — the 35-km Capilano, the 60.3-km Seymour and the 65-km Indian Arm route -—- are surface roads.

And both the Capilano and Seymour would run_ through North Shore watershed areas, pos- ing serious environmental threats

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to two-thirds of the Lower Mainland’s fresh water supplies.

GVRD spokesman Bud Elsie said Monday the GVRD was op- posed to any route through the area regardless of whether it was underground or above ground.

The GVRD’s position, he said, remains: ‘‘No roads through the watershed, period.’’

He also disputed the cost of building a 2!-km tunnel, saying it would be closer to $1 billion.

And North Vancouver District engineer John Bremner called the tunnel proposal unrealistic.

He said Capilano Road in its current condition could not handle the traffic volume of a highway to

Sunday, November 11 ,

calls for tunnel to Squamish

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The district would, he said, “have a great deal of objection” to the route.

But Kuun said the preliminary $500 million cost of the tunnel is similar to the costs of the other three alternatives.

Updating figures contained in a 1983 provincial government report to 1990 dollars, the Capilano route would cost roughly $403

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million; the Seymour route $509 million: and the Indian Arm route, with links on both the east and west banks of Indian Arm, would cost roughly $405 million to construct.

Under Kuun’s plan, the two- lane tunnel would begin at the north end of Capilano Road near the Grouse Mountain skyride, bear due north roughly to Little Capilano Lake, and then follow the Capilano River valley towards Howe Sound.

It would emerge just beyond the watershed boundaries near Phyllis Lake, 2.5 km east of Porteau Cove. A seven-km stretch of sur-

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face zvoad would then follow Phyllis Creek and connect with the Squamish Highway at Furry Creek roughly two km north of Porteau.

Kuun estimated that the tunnel could handle 1,800 vehicles per hour.

The North Vancouver Chamber of Commerce has passed a resolu- tion calling on the provincial highways ministry to explore all avenues of alternative access to the Squamish-Whistler-Pemberton area.

Kuun’s plan will be discussed Tuesday by the chamber’s trans- portation committee.

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