The long-awaited Evergreen Line connecting Burnaby, Port Moody and Coquitlam to Vancouver has been delayed once again.

Tunnel boring on the project is complete but the line isn’t expected to be operational until “early 2017,” the B.C. government announced Friday.

The Evergreen Line was previously pushed back from an initially scheduled launch in summer 2016 to the fall, due to issues with the boring process – which led to sinkholes forming in nearby communities.

Despite the delay, the government said the $1.4 billion project is chugging along and is currently more than three-quarters complete.

The Evergreen Line’s elevated and at-grade guideway in Burnaby, Port Moody and Coquitlam is finished, and the buildings at the seven planned stations are at least 80 per cent done.

Tunnel interior work and systems installations are expected to continue into next summer, with testing to begin in the fall.

According to the government, the Evergreen Line will carry 70,000 and remove 40,000 cars from the road every day by 2021.