Ferry terminal in British Columbia, Canada
Tsawwassen
is a ferry terminal and a major transportation facility in
Delta, British Columbia
, part of the
BC Ferries
system and
Highway 17
. Positioned less than 500 metres (1,600 ft) from the
49th parallel
along the
Canada?United States border
,
[2]
it is located at the southwestern end of a 2-kilometre (1.2 mi)
causeway
that juts out into the
Strait of Georgia
off the mainland at the community of
Tsawwassen
. With an approximate size of 23 hectares (57 acres), it is the largest ferry terminal in
North America
.
[
citation needed
]
History
[
edit
]
BC Ferries vessel,
Salish Raven
, loading passengers and cars at the Tsawwassen terminal
In the late 1950s, the search for a mainland ferry terminal that would connect British Columbia's
Lower Mainland
with the
Victoria area
on
Vancouver Island
involved extensive scouting of locations, from
Steveston
to
White Rock
. Despite concerns of rough seas and bad weather, the favoured site soon became the area offshore from
the Tsawwassen First Nation reserve
.
Construction of the terminal began in 1959, after
BC Transportation Minister
Phil Gaglardi
, on divided engineering advice, selected the site. Construction of an
artificial island
began, and the causeway was built from the island back towards the mainland.
[3]
The endeavour used an estimated 2.3 million cubic metres (3.0 million cubic yards) of boulder, rock, and gravel fill.
[4]
To connect
Highway 99
to the new terminal, an 11-kilometre-long (6.8 mi) highway was constructed near the southern end of the
Deas Tunnel
and through the edge of
Ladner
and became a portion of
Highway 17
. The terminal opened on June 15, 1960.
[5]
In the mid-1990s, a major renovation and expansion of the terminal was undertaken.
Issues
[
edit
]
The isolated causeway location of the terminal was criticized locally in its formative years but has allowed and continues to allow terminal expansion to cope with growing vehicle traffic.
In 2003, the
Tsawwassen First Nation
filed legal action in the
BC Supreme Court
over the destruction of the
foreshore
and other concerns caused by the impact of the terminal and the nearby
Roberts Bank Superport
.
[6]
Concerns were also expressed in 2005 about
eutrophication
, or destructive bacterial buildup, in the waters between the terminal and the Roberts Bank facility.
[7]
Ferry facilities and connections
[
edit
]
Currently, there are five
berths
at the Tsawwassen ferry terminal. The terminal primarily serves routes travelling to the
Swartz Bay ferry terminal
, north of
Victoria
, and the southern
Gulf Islands
.
On May 1, 1990, a connection from Tsawwassen to
Nanaimo
called the "Mid-Island Express" was established,
[8]
providing the fastest surface connection between Northern Vancouver Island and
the border with the United States
at
Blaine
, and, since the opening of the South Fraser Perimeter Road, to the
Fraser Valley
and points east. The route ran to
Departure Bay
until 1997, when the
Duke Point ferry terminal
opened.
The quickest path between the terminal and
Active Pass
, for ferries travelling to the Gulf Islands or to Swartz Bay, passes over approximately 8 km (5 mi) of United States waters in the Strait of Georgia.
The terminal is served by public transportation through
TransLink
's
620
bus route.
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Figures obtained for 2022 & 2023 from adding the passengers counted at Tsawwassen from the routes 1, 9, and 30 in each month of the
calendar year
.
[1]
The figures under "Total Prev Year" are not used because those denote
fiscal years
instead of calendar years. The total passenger count at Tsawwassen for 2022 was 4 144 989.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
"Plans, Reports, Policies and Other Resources"
.
Connecting the Coast
. BC Ferries
. Retrieved
2023-08-22
.
- ^
Google
(11 August 2020).
"Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal"
(Map).
Google Maps
. Google
. Retrieved
11 August
2020
.
- ^
Bannerman, Gary
; Bannerman, Patricia (1985).
The Ships of British Columbia
. Hancock House Publishers Ltd. p. 54.
- ^
"BC Ferries website - Milestones"
. Archived from
the original
on 2006-07-17
. Retrieved
2007-03-14
.
- ^
"New Ferries 'In Business'
"
.
Victoria Daily Times
. June 15, 1960. p. 1
. Retrieved
October 11,
2022
– via
Newspapers.com
.
- ^
"Ferries, port face suit"
.
Delta Optimist
. 11 December 2003. Archived from
the original
on September 27, 2007.
- ^
Gulyas, Maureen (June 25, 2005).
"Residents going APE over port expansion"
.
Delta Optimist
. Archived from
the original
on October 30, 2006.
- ^
Staff Writer (May 1, 1990).
"Daybreak"
.
The Province
. Retrieved
August 23,
2022
– via
ProQuest
.