Wednesday, September 24, 2025
Metro Vancouver has substantially completed construction of its Second Narrows Water Supply Tunnel, a project designed to increase water capacity and seismic resilience in the region.
The tunnel, which runs 30 metres beneath the Burrard Inlet between Burnaby and the District of North Vancouver, replaces three aging water mains built between the 1940s and 1970s. These older pipes were vulnerable to earthquake damage and nearing the end of their service lives.
The new 6.5-metre-diameter tunnel stretches just over one kilometre and contains three steel water mains capable of delivering more than one million litres of drinking water daily to Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, New Westminster, Delta, and parts of Coquitlam and Surrey. The mains are designed to withstand a one-in-10,000-year earthquake.
“Building this tunnel under the Burrard Inlet was a massive project and is another great example of the critical infrastructure that Metro Vancouver delivers for this region,” said Mike Hurley, chair of Metro Vancouver’s board of directors.
Brad West, chair of Metro Vancouver’s Water Committee, added that while the region is fortunate to have high-quality drinking water, the infrastructure needed to deliver it reliably is less visible. “The investment that Metro Vancouver makes in delivering large-scale infrastructure that is resilient, reliable, and adaptive to our growing population is one of the things that has made our region one of the most livable in the world,” he said.
Construction involved excavating through varied ground conditions using a slurry tunnel boring machine. Metro Vancouver will now begin connecting the new water mains to the existing system on both sides of the Burrard Inlet, with full service expected by 2028. Restoration of Second Narrows Park (Montrose Park) on the Burnaby side has already begun.
The project has earned multiple accolades, including the Tunnelling Association of Canada’s Canadian Project of the Year Award in 2024 and the Association of Consulting Engineers – BC Chapter’s 2025 Award of Excellence in the Municipal and Civil Infrastructure category.
Metro Vancouver supplies drinking water to more than three million residents, over half of British Columbia’s population. The Second Narrows Tunnel is part of a broader program of regional water supply upgrades designed to meet current seismic standards.
The project is number 15 in Water Canada’s 2025 edition of Top 50 Canadian Water Projects.
