Vision Vancouver Coun. Geoff Meggs is foregrounding successful freeway removals in other cities as the debate on whether to remove the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts continues.
“I personally can’t believe that we couldn’t improve on the viaducts. They’re part of a rejected freeway system from the ’70s that never got completed,” he said.
A proposal to begin public consultations on the possibilities of developing the area if the viaducts are removed will come before city council tomorrow, and Meggs is excited by examples from other cities.
He pointed to the Cheonggycheon highway in Seoul, which was removed to reveal the river that ran beneath it in 2005, creating a new public park.
“It led to a real transformation in Seoul — the creation of public space, a complete cleanup of a very difficult area of the city, a huge improvement all around,” Meggs said.
“The traffic issues were resolved with good engineering, which they usually can be.”
He also pointed out the Embarcadero Freeway in San Francisco, which was saved from demolition by a 1985 referendum only to be crippled in an earthquake four years later.
“Within a few weeks, the traffic had established new patterns and they decided not to replace it,” Meggs said. “That whole waterfront in San Francisco was reopened and became a very vital part of the city, which it wasn’t before.”
