Construction of the George Massey Tunnel 1957-59, aka Deas Island Tunnel - full film
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 เม.ย. 2014
- The film was originally called Deas Island Tunnel and is about the construction of the tunnel under the Fraser between Richmond and Delta in 1957-1959. The tunnel was opened on May 24th 1959.
The Ministry of Transportation has this film on their TH-cam channel in four parts, I decided to reconnect them all to all the film to be seen in its entirety
presented by the Department of Highways and the Government of BC
Produced by Photographic Branch, Provincial Department of Recreation and Conservation
Photography by Roger Sharland and Peter Parsons
Edited by Keith Cutler
Written by Eric Ramsden
Narrated by Gordon Inglis
Original footage
Part 1 • Building the George Ma...
Part 2 • Building the George Ma...
Part 3 • Building the George Ma...
Part 4 • Building the George Ma...
Film footage of the Official opening by Queen Elizabeth on July 15th 1959 • Opening of the Deas Is...
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Please watch: "Royal visit 1939 drive by on Kingsway at Marlborough in Burnaby May 29th"
• Royal visit 1939 drive...
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I remember going on a bicycle ride with three friends from South Vancouver
to Boundary Bay while the tunnel was being built. We cycled down Fraser St.
and over the two bridges spanning the North Arm and the Middle arm
of the Fraser River. Then we continued along No. 5 Rd to the very end at the
South Arm of the Fraser where the ferry docked to pick up passengers and
vehicles heading for Ladner. We were only 11 years old at the time but in that
era it was no big deal for kids to cycle 8 or 10 miles to some park or beach.
The ride to Boundary Bay was a challenge because it was more than double
our regular distance. That was the first and last time we took that bike trip
because the following Spring, the ferry was taken out of service when the
tunnel was opened to traffic. But like so many of the roads and bridges
built in the Lower Mainland with only dual carriageway capacity, the tunnel
proved inadequate to handle the growing volume of traffic by the mid- 70's.
I remember taking a family sunday drive out to see the tunnel being built. In the sixties we used to regularly bike from the renfrew park area to lynn creek to go swimming in the summer, even bunzen lake was within our biking reach.
Nothing else has given as good of description of how submerged tube tunnels are built, by far. One of the first, amazing.
my foster family grandparents. knew george n dot massey. the adults went thru the tunnel that night it opened. i was taken thru the next day.i was 2 yrs old. in grade 6 i made a mini tunnel 4 schoolproject. it was exact mini tunnel with true scale size. i had borrowed the real tunnel blue prints from the massey family.
this is so so cool! I drive through this thing like 3 times a week and always wondered HOW?! Now I know. Very cool
Wretched Slippage Same 🤣
So much thought was put into gradually transitioning the lighting between outside and inside the tunnel!
Had to pause the video and did a double take, my Grandfather is in this video.
Very cool
@@BCHistory I showed it to my Dad and it almost brought a tear to his eye.
This same project would take 10 years and 100 times the money to complete today
Really? The Port Mann Bridge is a much larger project and took three years. It was BC Liberal incompetence that drive the price up.
My grandfather worked on the tunnel.Very interesting watching this.Will be sad to see it gone.I know that feeling already since my dad worked as a welder on the old Port Mann bridge.
Gone? I haven't been there since the 90's! It was always fun to go through. What's happening with the tunnel?
@@SuuggestionKalaxy Big Construction wants to sell the province a bridge...
@@mikehall3976we need a bridge or tunnel expansion 🤣
@@ancormane524 twin the tunnel, that's my opinion.
Did your dad work for Local 97? If so, he might have worked with my dad.
i go through that tunnel every day
This is awesome.
needs more pixels but love that Peter Graves soundalike
Would make a lot more sense to just add another tunnel next to the current one. The infrastructure is already there to support it and you wouldn't need to disrupt current traffic flow to do it. The bridge idea is ripe with major flaws, the ground below is mud so there isnt a stable base for bridge pillars. It would also require redevelopment of the highways on both sides which would cause traffic nightmares until its finished. Could probably drop a new tunnel down there for 1/3 the price. Could even drop another tunnel afterwards without much disturbance.
too easy :) this is the 2020s, things have to be complicated and make no sense
My godfather owned one of the contributing construction companies. One of the most intelligent men I ever knew.
My 2nd cousins sister's distant friends spirt animal once heard of these tunnels
Pretty awesome work. Great video. If only they doubled the size.
I think there's still time to double the size ;)
Big Construction would like you to believe a bridge is necessary but hey
If we did it once then we can do it again, like that Steely Dan song. A second tunnel for northbound traffic only, leaving the original 59 tunnel for southbound lanes.
An immersed tube tunnel. The same as the Sydney Harbour Tunnel, although the sections for it were built in a dry dock at Port Kembla, and towed by tugboats through open ocean north to the harbour, a distance of about 100km. The tunnel passes near to the Opera House, which Queen Elizabeth II opened in 1973.
I can remember going thru the toll booths, don't remember how long they were there for. I was about 5 when they opened it up. Things have changed a wee bit since then.
Yes, the toll was set at 25 cents per car - the price of a ham sandwich and small fries in '59. The toll lasted just a few years. WAC Bennett lifted the toll as an election promise.
Very cool. To bad that the tunnel is always jammed pack from both Richmond and Ladner. I drive though this tunnel 4 times a day for work. Hurry up and build the bridge!
There's a good saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Its incredible the engineering that went behind the construction. Under water tunnels floating down the river?! I love my city!
It’s definitely broken LOL you don’t use this tunnel
The sheer amount of effort is remarkable. I still can't believe this tunnel was built that long ago, and is still holding up beautifully. It does need to be twinned, however. A second tunnel for northbound traffic leaving the original 59 tunnel for southbound.
Very interesting...it's a pity that within a decade it'll be no more. If only the province listened to George Massey in the beginning and made the tunnel accommodate 3 lanes in either direction. The new bridge built in its place should still bear his name.
+Cleo 5 billion is cheaper then 25 million ?
It's not just traffic but the tunnel itself is blocking ships of a certain size from being able to access ports further up the Fraser River.
+wetro100 You're comparing a 4-lane tunnel that cost $219 million in today's dollars to a $3.5 billion 10-lane crossing that will stand up to an earthquake much better, meet the needs of the people who use it, and not block ships of a certain size from being able to access ports further up the Fraser River.
It's for corporate greed to take out a perfectly good tunnel. So freighters can get up the river to extract our resources and in return give us a tolled bridge
George Massey never advocated for 3 lanes each way. He stated in an interview that the original design for the tunnel was for only one lane each way. He argued hard to get them to build it 2 lanes each way. As we can see now, he won that argument.
smoking in the workplace...ahh the good old days.
The good old days! When real estate was very affordable and the cost of living afforded everyone.
Not exactly everyone though......
No matter what engineers do, when that megathrust quake hits the lower mainland is gonna be in serious trouble. Just hope you're not in or on any tunnel or bridge at that point in time...
the quake is the least of our worries, i for one welcome our lizard overlords :) oh wait, they're here already
The Queen attended? I did t see that in The Crown!
Yeah, that was a major mistake, it was a cutting project at the time and she did open a lot of them
And nary a Canadian Maple Leaf flag was flown that day it opened. Not in protest, but it had yet to come into existence. Five more months and I was born and apparently, the Lafontain tunnel in Montreal was built the same way.
Man have these engineering documentaries come a long way. This was rudimentary, to say the least.
Most likely because the Maple Leaf flag didn't come along until '65. They would have flown the Ensign.
Now in late 2020 an 8- or 10-lane bridge is promised as a replacement for the 60-year-old, 4-lane Deas tunnel. I have to wonder if the tunnel will be flooded and the ramps filled, or if it will find some continuing use. After watching the film, it would seem a terrible shame to scrap it after the astonishing effort that went into its construction.
It's old. Some would say that its time has come and, in the rare event of a moderate to major seismic event, it would not be able to withstand the shaking and would succumb to the forces exerted on itself. Even with all the care and planning that went into the project, it's difficult to imagine this tunnel surviving an earthquake without being structurally compromised in some way, shape, or form. Furthermore, the tunnel has long since passed its useful service life and it simply cannot accomodate the sheer volume of traffic. Compared to the Pattullo Bridge however, I believe the tunnel would stand a much better chance in an earthquake. The Pattullo is hazardous.
@Quat Sino Patella? Someone wants a kneecap replaced?!?
This was before the traffic congestion of the tunnel
Also is there a video of the Canada line underwater.
The elements....
turnbuckles1 The elements, so many elements.
the... 5th....e-le-ment.....
Can’t wait to see the video of the new tunnel in 2030
3 people that gave thumbs down, don't like to take the tunnel :)
ban them from the tunnel make them carry a plaque on all the vehicles they own till they die.
Always a pussy out there
UPDATE: "A new eight-lane immersed-tube tunnel will be set to replace the George Massey Tunnel on Highway 99, providing people a toll-free crossing by 2030, with the cost estimated at $4.15 billion."
I was once told that the tunnel elements are supported by (and welded into) steel beams that were first pile-driven into the bedrock. I'm probably wrong, or this bit of information was left out. Were there, in fact, any beams pile-driven into the bedrock to support the elements?
As far as I know, the answer is no. The design did not need it
ace
Now we need a new bridge over.
Wonder if there was any protest about getting this tunnel built
It's Vancouver, so there must have been.
The cyclists were furious that bike lanes were not included in the design stage and protested by not showing up to the opening.
Aside from the Sons of Freedom Doukhoubors going starkers in the Kootenays in the late 1950's, I can't recall any mass protest in British Columbia. The first large protests were in the mid to late 60's over nuclear armament. People understood that construction meant jobs and jobs meant economic prosperity. A much better time to live than today. Very, very few people of working age were on welfare.
deas nuts
The mistake on the lake
Should have stayed in school mate, the mistake being that it was not a lake.
Good old Ladner!!
Why did we call it the Deas Tunnel for so long? He must have been important.
Deas Island was named for one John Sullivan Deas, an American tinsmith from California. In the early 1870's he built a cannery on the small island that now bears his name. After a few years of operation with heavy competition nearby, Deas decided to sell his land.
So sad to see this tunnel demolish. A 3.5 billion dollar toll bridge is kinda pointless.
How the heck did people cross the Fraser before the Patullo? A little ferry in Ladner? Was there another one in New West to Surrey? That was seriously the only bridge over the Fraser at the time of the creation of the Deas Tunnel? Just wow. I guess on the good side it would make Vancouver more difficult for Americans to get to.
According to Wikipedia, the old rail bridge right next to the Patullo had 2 lanes of traffic which was built in 1900.
Choco Manger The old Mission bridge across the Fraser R. was dual-purposed for vehicles andrailway and dates from the early 1900's; also in 1956 the Agassiz-Rosedale vehicle bridge was opened.But prior to the Pattullo, there was no exclusive vehicular crossing of the Fraser R. into Surrey, Delta,and Langley.
@@milanstreit49 It looks like that bridge only has space for one train track. I wonder how they fit in two lanes of auto traffic too.
@@r.crompton2286 Wow. Those bridges are pretty far out from the city centre. Interesting.
Choco Manger I would assume that until 1937 the railway bridge adjacent to the Pattullo Bridge operated like the railway bridge that provided the only vehicle crossing at MIssion up until the 1970's. At the Mission crossing, all vehicular traffic was stopped to allow trains to cross. When no trains were around, there was just one-way traffic, alternating every five or so minutes.
The events in the past 2 weeks have ruined all this
It is George MESSY tunnel.The worse ever built
It Was Built For 50's Traffic, Not The Blob We Have Now. Of Course It Seems To Suck.
@@sean-mv8fz It is not so much about the traffic volume. It is the way the tunnel is oriented and the amount of illumination it gives inside for safe driving that matters the most.This is why it is the worse ever built.
Disgusting small tunnel that’s breaking down at a fast pace. Very small tight tunnel that’s filled with traffic. Destroy it and build a bridge
The tunnel is a joke get the bridge going
That was 1959 and everybody was exited about the tunnel.
Learn to spell buddy
Build three more tunnels