Georgia Viaduct's Main Street exit to close for three months of construction | Daily Hive

Georgia Viaduct's off-ramp onto Main Street. (Google Maps)

Drivers heading east out of Downtown Vancouver face months of vehicle traffic disruptions on the Georgia Viaduct, beginning with the closure of its Main Street off-ramp on Friday, Oct. 2, 2026.

The City of Vancouver issued a bulletin today announcing the off-ramp from the Georgia Viaduct’s eastbound vehicle lanes onto Main Street will be closed to vehicles for approximately three months as part of a repair project scheduled to continue until Spring 2027.

Construction crews will replace expansion joints on the elevated roadway and its ramps. These joints allow parts of the structure to expand and contract.

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During this months-long construction process, drivers can expect fewer lanes to be available on the Georgia Viaduct during the project, potentially slowing trips from the Downtown Vancouver peninsula to Vancouver Eastside areas. The viaduct’s exit onto Prior Street will remain open.

People walking on the Georgia Viaduct’s sidewalk will also need to adjust their route. The sidewalk is expected to close for an extended period during construction, with pedestrians directed to use the sidewalk on the adjacent Dunsmuir Viaduct.

No access changes are planned for the Dunsmuir Viaduct, which provides westbound vehicle traffic lanes into the city centre. Dunsmuir Viaduct’s on-ramp from Main Street will remain open. However, some temporary lane closures will also be needed on Pacific Boulevard beneath the Georgia Viaduct to support construction.

fifa world cup georgia viaduct may 12 2026

Georgia Viaduct and Pacific Boulevard; FIFA World Cup Vancouver decorations, as seen on May 12, 2026. (Kenneth Chan)

The repairs come as the long-term future of both the Dunsmuir and Georgia viaducts remains up in the air.

On average, over 40,000 vehicles use the viaducts each day.

Under the City of Vancouver’s 2018-approved North East False Creek Plan, the elevated arterial bypass roads were slated to be demolished in 2019, and replaced with a new network of surface roads at ground level. Under that area plan, the footprint of the viaducts would enable a reconfiguration of the area for new high-density, mixed-use residential and commercial developments and significantly expanded public park space.

However, the project to demolish the viaducts and build a new surface road network has stalled due to escalating construction costs and a lack of progress on the area’s new market residential developments. Development contributions from the area’s developers were originally set to fund the area plan’s new infrastructure and public benefits. However, due to a wide range of reasons, including the current economic conditions, those development projects have also stalled.

Instead of demolition, the opposite is now occurring. The City is making interim investments to repair expansion joints on the seismically vulnerable structures built in the early 1970s to help ensure they remain safe. The City has also previously noted that more significant reinvestments will be required if the viaducts are still in place in the early 2030s, at which point the viaducts will be six decades old.

Earlier in 2026, City officials suggested the possibility of tapping into low-cost federal loans to demolish the viaducts and build the new surface roads.

Both viaducts were constructed in the 1970s to replace the previous deteriorating 1915-built Georgia-Harris Viaduct that spanned Northeast False Creek’s previous railyards, and to overcome the height of the Downtown Vancouver peninsula’s escarpment, which is adjacent to Beatty Street. The current viaducts were built to a freeway standard, forming a segment of a cancelled highway network.

Vehicle traffic congestion on the Dunsmuir Viaduct into Downtown Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan)

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