Thursday, September 7, 2017

With Climate change, rising tide height, why build either a bridge or a tunnel in a flood plain protected by dikes?

Traffic lines coded in green lines mixed with amber lines mixed with red lines is from 2015.  Things have changed since.  There is MORE traffic.

Nothing like commanding the high ground, a bridge over a tunnel option, but when the whole area that the traffic is flowing through is protected by a single line of defense, a dike, all hell can break loose in Richmond and Delta .....  good name that flood plain delta.

Every route leading up to Deas Island Tunnel, and a proposed replacement bridge, will face the same consequence if the BIG ONE hits Metro Vancouver.  The corridors will be awash in water, water everywhere.

Flood Plains can be a pain
 $3 billion debt in the Red for a bridge, to replace an aging tunnel?


 The new Pattullo Bridge takes off from the high ground of New Westminster and touches down on Surrey soil that is protected by a dike.

Port Mann Bridge?  Low ground to the north, high ground to the south.

Second Narrows Ironworkers Memorial Bridge?  High ground to the South, low ground to the north.

Suggestion:  Get out of the cars and use public transit built like Skytrain, and Canada Line, which are raised well above the flood plains.

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BC Liberal Laurie Throness demands for his new leader:  Fraser Basin Council Lower Mainland Flood Management Strategy

Suggestion: Environment Item # 5 of 65 total topics
 

1 comment:

e.a.f. said...

unfortunately when the shit hits the fan, sky train and such won't be running. Sky train can't even run if there is too much snow.

With rising sea levels politicians and citizens alike need to start looking at what must be done in the future. Tearing down things like the Georgia Viaducts is not smart. all of that area around Science World etc. was once swamp. If you look at very old pictures you can see what it looked like.

When bridges were being built it was with an eye towards politics and not rising sea levels. Richmond of course is below sea level and a lot of it flooded in 1948. Also in the winter of 1957 the was quite a bit of flooding around Richmond because first the ground frozen and then it rained, leaving the water no place to go except everyone's basement. Richmond needs to bring its dykes up to a level where they can with stand earth quakes, floods and rain storms. if they were to start now, it would still be too late.

In case of an earthquake the lower mainland is not going to function and the city of vancouer will not be able to bring in any of its staff. they can't afford to live in Vancouver.

nice post and something for politicians to think about.