In this edition of Throwback Thursday, we recall the infamous cut-and-cover construction of the Cambie Street portion of the Canada Line. Completed ahead of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, the 19.2-kilometre-long transit line has brought immeasurable benefits to Vancouver, but not without some much-publicized short-term pain. 

Canada Line construction in June 2007, image by Flickr user Ruth Hartnup via Creative Commons

Back in 2007, the Cambie Street corridor was in disarray. Today, after trains travel through a bored subway tunnel beneath Granville Street and Yaletown, they approach the cut-and-cover tunnel under Cambie Street. This section was originally meant to also be constructed as a bored tunnel, but was later switched to the cut-and-cover method, leaving business owners along Cambie Street indignant. The method is much more disruptive at street-level, since it requires the physical removal of the road surface to dig a trench, construct a tunnel, and then seal it off.

Cambie Street in 2016, image retrieved from Google Street View

Suffering business owners launched a class action lawsuit against the builders of the Canada Line before the project was even finished, citing the loss of revenue resulting from choosing the cheaper cut-and-cover method. In the wake of the transit maelstrom, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson has pledged that the upcoming Broadway subway would not use cut-and-cover tunnelling.

Cambie Street in 2015, image by Flickr user Ross G. Strachan via Creative Commons

The current view depicts the street back in its normal state. The backdrop, meanwhile, has changed quite substantially in the ten years since. The new roof for BC Place is visible from this angle, but most of the venue has been obscured by condominium development in the immediate vicinity. The Rise — a 92-unit residential and retail development — under construction in the 'then' photo, is now complete. The mid-rise development is flanked by 7th and 8th Avenues.

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