The Do RAV Right Coalition will be in BC Supreme Court starting Monday June 20 at 10 a.m. in its legal efforts to force the province to undertake a new public consultation process on the Richmond-Airport-Vancouver rapid transit line because of RAV’s switch to environmentally damaging cut-and-cover construction.

Coalition lawyer Joyce Thayer says she will argue that the province must follow existing provincial and federal laws that guarantee the right of citizens to comprehensive and meaningful public consultation on the environmental impact of switching to cut-and-cover construction from its original plans to proceed by underground bored tunnel.

Other parties to the case include RAVCO, the organization building the line, TransLink and the federal government. BC Supreme Court Justice Robert Bauman has set aside four days to hear legal arguments.

The case was begun after RAVCO announced in late December 2004 that it would switch construction from a bored tunnel to “cut-and-cover” construction which would require digging a 40-foot deep trench along Granville Mall and up the full length of Cambie Street.

This radical design change and switch to cut-and-cover construction will be devastating, the Coalition says. It will create traffic gridlock for 2-3 years, jeopardize livelihoods, and seriously disrupt the lives of residents in the affected areas.