As BC Ferries moves forward with schedule changes and terminal upgrades at Langdale, a lot of Sunshine Coasters are asking, “What became of the feasibility study on a potential fixed link?”
MLA Nicholas Simons told Coast Reporter during an interview for our Coast Beat podcast that he’s been getting that question a lot, and his best answer is “soon” – which is the same answer that’s been coming from the Ministry for Transportation for the 11 months since the consultation wrapped up.
Engineering firm R.F. Binnie was awarded a $250,000 contract to draft a study looking at four options to connect the upper Sunshine Coast with the lower Coast or Squamish and the lower Sunshine Coast with the Sea-to-Sky corridor.
There was a series of open houses, and an online survey, in October and November of 2016, and the report was promised by the end of the year.
In December, Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MOTI) officials told Coast Reporter, “R.F. Binnie and Associates is nearing completion of the feasibility study. Their report is being finalized, and it’s expected to be completed and released in the next couple of months.”
By April, with an election in the offing, MOTI’s Don Legault told the Sunshine Coast Regional District transportation committee the ministry was no longer expecting the report before the May 9 vote.
In July, with the election settled, Legault told the committee the report’s release was on the horizon. “Now that we’ve got a new minister, it will be released to her at some point, and after that it will be released,” he said.
Inquiries to new Transportation Minister Claire Trevena’s office yielded a familiar response: “With multiple options to review, and the amount of public input to consider, it has taken the ministry longer than first thought to adequately summarize the information. The information gathered during the Sunshine Coast Fixed Link Feasibility Study will be important for the ministry’s long-term plans in the region, so we’re taking the time to make sure the report is as thorough as possible. The report will be completed and released as soon as possible.”
According to Simons, that moment could come before the end of the month.
“I’ve been told that [the release] is imminent,” he said. “I would suggest that we will see it, I hope by the end of this month, and if not, in October. I’m pushing for the release. I think they’re working on some of the costing associated with some of the findings. Obviously it’s a project that has taken longer than anticipated.”
The report’s release will also put the new government in the position of having to decide what to do with the results. Given the NDP’s recent “Toll Free BC” approach to bridge charges on the Lower Mainland, it’s unclear if a fixed link, which is typically pitched as a toll road, is a non-starter even if the Binnie report suggests it’s practical.
“I don’t want to presume to know what our [government’s] reaction is going to be overall,” said Simons. “I anticipate that [building a fixed link] would be a costly endeavour. On the Sunshine Coast we recognize that the infrastructure here has to be upgraded in order to be able to accommodate any increase in traffic… There are lot of other things that would need to take place before any bridge or road around Howe Sound comes to be.”
