The City of Vancouver is taking another step towards eventually demolishing the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts.
Vancouver council is expected to approve a recommendation to begin up to two years of detailed study on the removal of the elevated roadways as well as planning for the city's eastern core.
"In every city's evolution there are rare opportunities to take bold city-building steps to advance the city's goals and liveability or correct a past planning wrong," a staff report says.
The idea could complicate the drive in and out of downtown Vancouver for the 35,000 motorists who use the viaducts each day.
The staff report says it must be demonstrated how a new post-viaduct street system will adequately connect downtown and provide enough vehicle capacity for goods movement.
Tearing down the viaducts would cost up to $132 million but could give Vancouver more waterfront parkland and additional land to build affordable and subsidized housing, the report said.
"The viaducts' removal also eliminates a physical and psychological barrier and erases an urban scar from a rapidly urbanizing part of the city."
Several Chinatown groups have endorsed the teardown plan.
The Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts are elevated roadways that are underused vestiges of a vast freeway plan through Vancouver that was blocked decades ago. bing.com image.