The Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts are coming down.
In a 5-4 vote Tuesday night, the ruling Vision Vancouver council agreed with a staff recommendation to proceed with a $200-million plan to demolish the elevated roadways that have served as a link from Chinatown and Strathcona to downtown since the 1970s.
“We’re basically trading an aging piece of infrastructure that’s under-used from a past century – a relic of a failed transportation policy – for an improved road network that can serve a dense new Northeast False Creek neighbourhood and connect the downtown and Chinatown and other neighbourhoods to False Creek,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson after hearing from more than 50 people over two days who largely supported the plan to tear down the viaducts.
Robertson credited Vision Coun. Geoff Meggs for leading the charge to remove the viaducts, a move supported by Vision councillors Tim Stevenson, Heather Deal and Raymond Louie. The vote, which occurred without Vision councillors Andrea Reimer and Kerry Jang present, has a place in the city’s history books since it overturns a decision made a century ago to build the original Georgia viaduct in 1915 before it was replaced with the existing structures.
