Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development Peter Fassbender on behalf of Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Todd Stone was joined by Ron McKinnon, MP for Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam and TransLink board chair Barry Forbes to celebrate the completion of the tunnel boring, an important milestone in the construction of the Evergreen Line.

“This milestone demonstrates the great progress we are making toward bringing a vital transportation connection to Metro Vancouver,” said Ron McKinnon, MP for Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam. “Our Government is pleased to support this important, job-creating project which will expand and connect multiple transit systems, help reduce traffic congestion, and benefit those living, working, and commuting across the region.”

Alice, the tunnel boring machine, drilled a single two-kilometre tunnel starting east of Barnet Highway in Port Moody to south of Kemsley Avenue in Coquitlam. The tunnel is an integral part of Evergreen Line project that will link Burnaby, Port Moody and Coquitlam to the existing SkyTrain line serving Metro Vancouver. Boring the tunnel was the most complex and technically challenging part of the Evergreen Line project.

“Celebrating the completion of the tunnel boring work today is a great milestone for the project and for the communities this line will serve,” said Stone. “The Evergreen Line project is more than 75% complete, and the work to finish the line, including the tunnel, is well underway. Once Evergreen is complete, B.C. will have the longest, fully automated rapid transit network in the world.”

“A project of the size and complexity of Evergreen is the result of a lot of hard work on the part of our partners and those who work daily on making this new transit line a reality,” said Fassbender. “This project is another example of the commitment our government has made to improve transit services in the Lower Mainland.”

(flickr.com)

"We congratulate the Province on reaching the end of this leg of the project. Residents in Coquitlam and Port Moody are now that much closer to having a direct rapid transit route to Vancouver," says TransLink board chair Barry Forbes. "This is a great example of all levels of government coming together to invest in transportation infrastructure to support and shape growth in the region.

The elevated and at-grade guideway in Burquitlam, Port Moody and Coquitlam is complete. The station buildings range between 80% and 99% complete. There are seven stations along the project alignment: Lougheed Town Centre Station, Burquitlam Station, Moody Centre Station, Inlet Centre Station, Coquitlam Central Station, Lincoln Station, and Lafarge Lake-Douglas Station. 

EGRT Construction is responsible for building the elevated and at-grade guideways, the two-kilometre bored tunnel, seven stations, power substations, train-operating systems and roadworks, as well as a vehicle-storage and light-maintenance facility.

The tunnel interior work and systems installation will continue into summer 2016. Train testing is expected to begin in the tunnel in the fall of 2016 with the line operational in early 2017.

Evergreen will link Burnaby, Port Moody and Coquitlam to Vancouver and will be fully integrated into the existing SkyTrain system at Lougheed Town Centre Station. It will carry 70,000 passengers and remove 40,000 cars from the road every day by 2021.

Funding for the Evergreen Line project is a partnership between the Government of Canada, the Government of British Columbia and TransLink, costing $1.43 billion. The Government of Canada is contributing up to $424 million ($350 million from the Building Canada Fund, $67 million from the Public Transit Capital Trust Fund, and $7 million from the P3 Fund), the Government of B.C. is contributing $586 million, and other partners are contributing $21 million. TransLink is contributing the remaining $400 million and will operate the system when it opens.

(flickr.com)

Learn More:

The Evergreen Line: www.evergreenline.gov.bc.ca

Information in other languages is available at: www.evergreenline.gov.bc.ca/languages.htm

Twitter: @TranBC #EvergreenlineBC 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/evergreenline

For photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/tranbc/sets/72157632226282626

A backgrounder follows.