Appearing frustrated that the question was raised by the media during Tuesday evening’s celebratory FIFA World Cup press conference in Vancouver, B.C. Premier David Eby addressed the elephant in the room: the provincial government’s latest update on the long-awaited project to build the new George Massey Tunnel. On Monday, the provincial government announced it had exercised the termination option in its preliminary agreement with the European-led contractor that was selected almost exactly two years ago to design and build a new eight-lane immersed tube tunnel to replace the aging, seismically vulnerable, four-lane, counterflow-controlled George Massey Tunnel. In explaining its decision to restart the procurement process, the provincial government strongly suggested in its Monday news release that the move was due to cost escalation with the selected contractor, which had helped complete the project’s detailed technical design work.

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