Port of Vancouver administrators, along with political and industry leaders, stood atop a small stage in a largely vacant marine terminal Tuesday morning to celebrate the completion of the $251 million West Vancouver Freight Access project.
Throughout the celebration, workers rushed newly imported Subarus into an awaiting freight train in the background and heavy equipment and engines groaned in the distance.
What began as one project to give port tenants more timely access to trains in the mid-2000s mushroomed into a roughly dozen-year, quarter-billion dollar infrastructure investment. The port used its own funds and bonds to pay for about 71 percent of the project, while grants, tenant fees and BNSF Railway’s in-kind contributions paid for the rest.
