A 2 billion dollar subway currently in works is getting ready to transform Vancouver, British Columbia, one of the crowdest cities in Canada. With a population of nearly 3 million, Vancouver ranks as the 3rd most-populous city in the country. However, the city is also face to face with overcrowding and housing shortages.
The housing shortages especially effect the Brodway Corridor area of the city. This area is one of the biggest and busiest business centres in all of Americas. It is actually the second-largest. The corridor receives thousands of visitors every day but the current transportation system and the number of residences cannot accomadate that many people. In order to tackle these problems, the government of British Columbia has decided to develop an underground infrastructure project.
The 2 billion dollar subway is called the Broadway Subway Project. It has this name because the goal of the project is to ease the crowding of the Corridor and provide easy access to one of the most important places in the country.
The project is the continuation of SkyTrain network which has been operational since 2009. It carries nearly 500,000 people every day stopping in 53 different stations. However, at this point, and according to estimatations about the future population boom of Vancouver, it will surely fall short at some point.
Therefore, to take measures against this falling short before it happens, Vancouver has been constructing the subway since the late 2022. When the construction finishes, the new subway will have added 6 new stations and 10 kilometers of tunnels in total. However, the construction is not without its setbacks either.
One of these setbacks is the difficulty of boring tunnels through concrete. Every time the boring machines open up a hole, they have to put thousands of rings and line them, so that it does not close. Another one is the existence of other subway tunnels. Normally, the Broadway Subway is located 18 meters underground. But because of another tunnel, a new tunnel had to be 22 meters deep.
Despite the problems, old or new, the project is eyeing 2025-2026 to finish.
