Recently I focused on the highest contiguous highway in the United States. Today I’d like to focus on the opposite situation in another place in North America.
What is the lowest road in Canada?
I love a good trick question. Canada’s lowest elevation is sea level, so the obvious answer would be any road that runs along the seacoast. Unfortunately, that would be wrong.
The lowest point on a public road in Canada runs through the George Massey Tunnel (map). It burrows under the Fraser River south of Vancouver International Airport, and at its lowest spot reaches down to twenty meters below sea level. The tunnel is a major section of Highway 99 that carries four lanes of airport and commuter traffic just a couple of kilometers east of the Strait of Georgia and near the ferry terminal at Tsawwassen. It’s so significant that there is an effort underway to add two more lanes.
The tunnel entrance is nearly at sea level as dictated by the surrounding terrain. The tunnel then needs to drop considerably to get under the river. This is where it goes below sea level and where it becomes the lowest road in Canada.
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