European contractor to build new George Massey Tunnel fired by B.C. government | Daily Hive

2024 revised concept of the new replacement George Massey Tunnel. (Government of BC)

The Government of British Columbia has terminated its agreement with the contractor chosen two years ago to design and build the new replacement George Massey Tunnel.

The provincial government is now moving forward with a new bidding process to seek a new team of contractors.

This reverses the previous contract award announced in July 2024 to a private consortium called Cross Fraser Partnership — a group comprised of various major European firms with previous proven experience in building major tunnel projects, as well as some Canadian firms.

Cross Fraser Partnership was led by the Canadian division of France-based Bouygues Construction, in partnership with Spanish construction company Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas, Quebec-based Pomerleau, architectural and engineering firm Arcadis (formerly known as IBI Group), and Netherlands-based dredging and marine services firm Boskalis.

Bouygues is perhaps best known for playing a key part in building the 50-km-long Channel Tunnel, also known as the Chunnel, between France and the United Kingdom.

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The project is envisioned as an eight-lane immersed tube tunnel — four vehicle lanes in each direction — with a separate tunnel between both vehicle directions for pedestrians and cyclists.

Upon completion, the existing 1959-built, four-lane, counterflow-controlled George Massey Tunnel — which is seismically vulnerable, regularly faces major traffic congestion, and is unreliable — will be decommissioned and removed. It saw 82,200 vehicle per day on average in 2025 — or 20,700 vehicles per lane per day, making it one of the region’s busiest and most congested crossings.

The new 1.054-km-long immersed tunnel would be built using pre-cast concrete segments, which would be built at a major new temporary facility next to the new tunnel site. Six pre-cast segments would be floated out of a basin, and then positioned and sunk into a trench dug on the bed of the Fraser River. All segments would be sealed and waterproofed, and a layer of large boulders would be placed on top of the tunnel structure to protect it from damage, such as ship strikes. In addition to the tunnel, there would also be a 350-metre-long, eight-lane Fraser River bridge between the tunnel’s south portal on Deas Island and the rest of Highway 99 in Delta.

This contract termination announcement was made today, with the project now targeted to begin major construction work in 2027 — instead of in 2026. The provincial government’s environmental assessment process first began in 2021 and was originally expected to conclude by late 2024 or 2025, but this key step before major construction can begin is now anticipated to reach the finish line by the end of 2026. A completion and opening of the new tunnel was scheduled for 2030, but that is now highly unlikely.

george massey tunnel new project

2025 revised concept of the new George Massey Tunnel. (Government of B.C.)

The provincial government has been working with Cross Fraser Partnership since September 2024 on a design and early works agreement on the project’s detailed design, technical studies, and early construction work, while working on a potential final construction agreement.

According to the provincial government, they made “significant progress” on the design and current construction work with the European-led team, but a final agreement was not reached.

The provincial government exercised its “termination option” that was built into the process, which “will allow the Province to retender this work to seek the best value,” with a focus on seeking more local contractors.

While Cross Fraser Partnership was selected in a bidding process that sought one major contractor to be responsible for all aspects of design and construction, the new bidding process will split up the work into several separate smaller packages — similar to the approach taken for the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain extension project and the Fraser Valley Highway 1 expansion and improvement project. The provincial government asserts breaking up the contract work will strengthen competition.

“We’ve received good value from the contractor and have made steady progress with the design, thanks to their work. However, this project is critical to British Columbia’s future, and we are taking this back to a competitive process to seek the best possible value for taxpayers,” said Mike Farnworth, B.C. minister of transportation and transit, in a statement this afternoon.

“We know the market is hungry for work on major infrastructure projects, and engagement with industry confirmed there is strong interest in competing for this project.”

The first step of this new bidding process will seek qualified proponents, before entering the Request For Proposal (RFP) stage of a detailed bid submission. According to the provincial government, there is strong preliminary market interest from international and domestic contractors on this revised approach of splitting up the project into smaller contracts.

“By design, our process has a pre-existing termination option in case we could not reach mutually acceptable terms. We are well placed to leverage improving market competitiveness. Moving to a revised procurement model creates more opportunities for Canadian and local contractors to participate while ensuring this nation-building project is delivered in the most fiscally responsible way possible,” continued Farnworth.

Concept visual of the manufacturing facility on Deas Island for the new George Massey Tunnel segments. (Government of B.C.)

Concept visual of how tugboats will move each of the floating segments of the new George Massey Tunnel. (Government of B.C.)

Concept visual of the excavated trench on the bed of the Fraser River for the segments of the new George Massey Tunnel. (Government of B.C.)

Concept visual of cables being used to position and lower the segments of the new George Massey Tunnel into the trench on the bed of the Fraser River. (Government of B.C.)

Concept visual of a thick layer of boulders being placed over the segments of the new George Massey Tunnel. (Government of B.C.)

B.C. government quiet on updated project cost

While a revised estimated construction cost was not provided, the provincial government’s details and statements today strongly suggest the decision to go with a different approach relates to the updated cost of the project under Cross Fraser Partnership, which has not been publicly released.

As it currently stands, the project’s official publicly stated budget is $4.15 billion, which was a figure first made public in April 2021 as part of the project’s business case process. But after years of very significant inflation for the market construction costs of materials, labour, and equipment, coupled with the geotechnical complexities of such a project in the area, this figure is now extremely outdated.

Over the past few years, the provincial government has also been highly tight lipped about the project’s revised costs, but the 2026 provincial budget released earlier this year hinted of changes to the cost and implementation schedule.

Although major construction work has yet to begin, preliminary construction work first started in January 2026, such as tree clearing, utility relocations, and preparation for the construction of a casting basin for the new tunnel’s prefabricated immersed tunnel segments. This preliminary work can already be seen next to the entrances of the existing tunnel. According to the provincial government, there have been over 200 workers on this site this year.

new george massey tunnel preliminary construction work delta june 1 2026 f

Preliminary construction and site preparation work next to the south end of the existing George Massey Tunnel for the future new immersed tunnel project, as seen on June 1, 2026. (Kenneth Chan)

October 2024 collision in the George Massey Tunnel. (BC Highway Patrol)

Traffic congestion at the George Massey Tunnel due to the major October 2024 collision. (Government of BC)

The BC NDP-led government also indicated in its 2026 budget that it is looking to slow down the pace of its capital investments — new construction on infrastructure, hospitals, community facilities, and affordable housing projects. With continued major operating budget deficits and a heightened capital budget on the construction of new facilities and infrastructure, taxpayer-supported debt will jump by 23 per cent to $142.9 billion in 2026/2027, with further increases to $167 billion in 2027/2028 and $189 billion in 2028/2029.

The provincial government shared that it has had “productive discussions” with prime minister Mark Carney’s federal government for financial support for this “nation-building project,” given the tunnel’s significance for port traffic and the movement of goods. In 2024, premier David Eby made a formal pitch to then-prime minister Justin Trudeau, outlining six major B.C. infrastructure project priorities for federal attention, with the George Massey Tunnel project deemed as the “top transportation infrastructure priority” for federal funding. However, the provincial government reportedly rejected the federal of a few hundred million dollars, as it would be a drop in the bucket for covering overall costs.

“We are having constructive conversations with our federal parters about this important infrastructure project, which they have committed to support, and how it is critical for building Canada and growing the economy,” said Farnworth today.

During an event with the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade in early 2026, Gregor Robertson — the federal minister of housing, infrastructure, and communities, and a former mayor of Vancouver — called the tunnel project a “big, huge” priority within a list of local infrastructure priorities.

How did we get here?

Shortly after forming government in 2017, the BC NDP-led provincial government controversially cancelled the previous 10-lane George Massey Bridge project, which was just months away from starting major construction work.

The original bridge project by the last BC Liberals-led provincial government carried a $3.5 billion budget, with the provincial government’s bidding process in 2017 attracting a bid as low as $2.6 billion — $900 million lower than the estimate. Construction was expected to begin in late 2017, but it was cancelled by the BC NDP soon after the election that year, with provincial leaders at the time — premier John Horgan and B.C. transportation and infrastructure minister Claire Trevana — asserting that the bridge had too much capacity, and that it should not be tolled to cover its costs.

At the time, the BC NDP leadership also faced highly vocal bridge project cancellation calls by Richmond mayor Malcolm Brodie — who took issue with the potential additional traffic issues a large bridge would bring to his jurisdiction, and the size of Highway 99’s interchange with Steveston Highway, and strongly preferred upgrading the existing tunnel or building a new tunnel — and then-BC Green party leader Andrew Weaver.

That new bridge and the much more extensive Highway 99 corridor improvement projects were scheduled to reach full completion in 2022.

After cancelling the bridge, the BC NDP-led government formed a task force of select Metro Vancouver mayors — Brodie, Delta mayor George Harvie, Richmond mayor Malcolm Brodie, Surrey mayor Doug McCallum, Vancouver mayor Kennedy Stewart, and White Rock mayor Darryl Walker — to recommend a new approach. In 2019, two years later, these mayors collectively recommended a new eight-lane bored tunnel.

Then in 2021, the provincial government announced its approach of an eight-lane immersed tunnel at a cost of $4.15 billion.

Cancelled original project: Artistic rendering of the Highway 99 improvements, including bus lanes and a Highway 17a interchange bus stop, for the cancelled 10-lane George Massey Bridge project. (Government of BC)

Cancelled original project: Artistic rendering of the 10-lane George Massey Bridge project. (Government of BC)

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