[Hyack]

Canadian_Mind Canadian_Mind:

A bridge up near Campbell River could be a good idea. My biggest concern is that a bridge connection will result in even more seniors and foreigners flooding the island, driving those of us who are native to the island off of it with extremely high property prices and living expenses.

Campbell River.....where the Hell would that lead to??? To access any part of the mainland you end up damn near where I was in my last post, way the hell up the Squamish river system. When you come down to it this would probably be the easiest way to go, both to the Sunshine coast and the island. The biggest problem of course would be the cost of punching any kind of highway through the terrain. You realize this route would take you as far north as Pemberton, take a look at the Sea to Sky highway from Squamish all the way through to Pemberton, now pretty well double the distance and you have some idea of what you're looking at. The cost of that work would be in the multi-million dollar range, if not more!! That route would definitely open up some damn nice country.....

One other thing to consider is.....who the Hell wants to drive to Campbell River? That puts you half way up the island, 155 km to Nanaimo and 265 km to Victoria! With the distances driven both on the mainland and the island it would be very much quicker to take any of the BC ferry routes, and even with their exorbitant costs it would probably be cheaper taking the ferry, unless the price of gas drops a whole Hell of a lot!!

[andyt]

Hyack Hyack:

Canadian_Mind Canadian_Mind:

A bridge up near Campbell River could be a good idea. My biggest concern is that a bridge connection will result in even more seniors and foreigners flooding the island, driving those of us who are native to the island off of it with extremely high property prices and living expenses.

Campbell River.....where the Hell would that lead to??? To access any part of the mainland you end up damn near where I was in my last post, way the hell up the Squamish river system. When you come down to it this would probably be the easiest way to go, both to the Sunshine coast and the island. The biggest problem of course would be the cost of punching any kind of highway through the terrain. You realize this route would take you as far north as Pemberton, take a look at the Sea to Sky highway from Squamish all the way through to Pemberton, now pretty well double the distance and you have some idea of what you're looking at. The cost of that work would be in the multi-billion dollar range, if not more!! That route would definitely open up some damn nice country.....

One other thing to consider is.....who the Hell wants to drive to Campbell River? That puts you half way up the island, 155 km to Nanaimo and 265 km to Victoria! With the distances driven both on the mainland and the island it would be very much quicker to take any of the BC ferry routes, and even with their exorbitant costs it would probably be cheaper taking the ferry, unless the price of gas drops a whole Hell of a lot!!

Fixed that for you. To make it 3 lanes from Squamish to Whistler was 600 million right there.

[Hyack]

600 million.......crazy, crazy, crazy.....my first trip up to Squamish was along the old upper levels highway to Britannia Beach where the pavement ended....In 1972 I was living in Mt Currie and had friends working on the Sea to Sky highway and others for the PGE railroad. The whole road had been paved by that time and most of the work was widening it and putting in passing lanes and generally making the road safer. I don't know what the cost of the road was but I do know the road builders lost a case or 2 of dynamite, blasting caps and fuses..... The local constabulary never did locate those responsible for those early Sunday morning blasts that echoed up and down the Pemberton valley.....

[Canadian_Mind]

You spoke of road access to Vancouver Island. Did you mean only to P.R? I interpreted your statement as road access to V.I. from the lower mainland. It's a pretty radical idea, but it is something that gets more attention than I'm comfortable with.

The two ideas generally discussed are a series of bridges across active pass, and a road punched through to Pemberton.

The other is a bridge across the main strait, which comes in two flavours; floating bridge, and supermassive elevated structure.

Honestly, if completed, a road link via Pemberton would make transportation of commercial good cheaper compared to the ferry. The drive from Vancouver to Pemberton, Pemberton to Powel River, Powel River to Campbell River, and from Campbell River to Victoria would still be cheaper that passage via ferry. In all likelihood much of the commercial traffic from east of the lower mainland would route via the 97 from Cache Creek north and then go west on 99 to the new connector. Something I've noticed every time I've gone home is that it's the same 4-5 trucks I'm stuck behind all the way to the ferry terminals. Usually hauling grain and other foodstuffs.

As for personal vehicle traffic, I anticipate most people would still opt for the ferries, as the time savings to most destinations would be significant.

[herbie]

That's the con argument. Build a road, it would be only 2 lanes due to costs. You'd get to spend an extra 4-5 hours stuck behind those same trucks!

[BartSimpson]

Canadian_Mind Canadian_Mind:

You spoke of road access to Vancouver Island. Did you mean only to P.R? I interpreted your statement as road access to V.I. from the lower mainland. It's a pretty radical idea, but it is something that gets more attention than I'm comfortable with.

The two ideas generally discussed are a series of bridges across active pass, and a road punched through to Pemberton.

The other is a bridge across the main strait, which comes in two flavours; floating bridge, and supermassive elevated structure.

Honestly, if completed, a road link via Pemberton would make transportation of commercial good cheaper compared to the ferry. The drive from Vancouver to Pemberton, Pemberton to Powel River, Powel River to Campbell River, and from Campbell River to Victoria would still be cheaper that passage via ferry. In all likelihood much of the commercial traffic from east of the lower mainland would route via the 97 from Cache Creek north and then go west on 99 to the new connector. Something I've noticed every time I've gone home is that it's the same 4-5 trucks I'm stuck behind all the way to the ferry terminals. Usually hauling grain and other foodstuffs.

As for personal vehicle traffic, I anticipate most people would still opt for the ferries, as the time savings to most destinations would be significant.

I've wanted to see bridge access to Vancouver Island via the USA:

It'd be cheaper and you'd get the added benefit of having the US shoulder most of the expense. Upside is a lot of container traffic would skip running through Tsawassen and instead would go from Seattle to Vancouver Island via the new bridges.