Green Line LRT - $4.6 Billion Project

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by DoubleK

So much this. I'm in Renfrew and would much prefer they'd take the funding for 2B and build as far south as that money will allow.

That is one of the issues for the trade off - 2B's costs are low enough that the tradeoff isn't a great one. It isn't $1B, it is $300-400 M. And for that amount, the biggest ridership bang for the buck is to 16th.

[PPAR]

Originally Posted by lucx

Stakeholders in the Beltline prefer the original route on 10 and 12 Ave. They think there are ways to optimize cost and risk. During detailed design, if they find 10 and 12 Ave is cheaper than 11 Ave (doubtful), they would bring a revised route back for approval. Nenshi thought this was pointless and voted to remove this recommendation while everyone else went meh and left it in.

Just a hypothetical here:
Lets say I am a developer with a large lot on 12th, and the city gets the cost differential down to say $20M. Could I come in and say "build the line on 12th, with a station in my building, and I will deliver the line for $1 less than the 11th Ave alignment"?

[lubicon]

Glad to see the project (finally) approved, it's dragged on way to long already. But my fear now is they will find an excuse to not proceed with phase 2b and it the line doesn't cross the river now I doubt I will every see that happen in my lifetime. I'm afraid we are sacrificing the better line for a cheaper line.

[lucx]

Originally Posted by PPAR

Just a hypothetical here:
Lets say I am a developer with a large lot on 12th, and the city gets the cost differential down to say $20M. Could I come in and say "build the line on 12th, with a station in my building, and I will deliver the line for $1 less than the 11th Ave alignment"?

All indications point to yes if possible. The city has been talking to property owners and actively looking for ways to integrate stations into developments. This cooperation was how they got Eau Claire station from street level to underground below the property.

Originally Posted by lubicon

Glad to see the project (finally) approved, it's dragged on way to long already. But my fear now is they will find an excuse to not proceed with phase 2b and it the line doesn't cross the river now I doubt I will every see that happen in my lifetime. I'm afraid we are sacrificing the better line for a cheaper line.

The city is confident they can build to 16 Ave (there's a ~$700 million contingency). They will build the bridge unless something catastrophic like a 2013 flood happens. In this event they can manage the situation without being locked into a signed contract for 2B.

[milomilo]

Originally Posted by lubicon

Glad to see the project (finally) approved, it's dragged on way to long already. But my fear now is they will find an excuse to not proceed with phase 2b and it the line doesn't cross the river now I doubt I will every see that happen in my lifetime. I'm afraid we are sacrificing the better line for a cheaper line.

This has been a regular talking point and it doesn't make sense. If in the future the case for going north of the river is so poor that we can't justify building it, why is that a good reason to build it today?

Shoehorning a substandard stub onto the Green Line will do more harm than good and I predict will make the actual north less likely to get rail transit sooner. The construction of the line will inflict misery on the local population of Centre St, yet when built it won't even be a high quality LRT, it's a streetcar. And since there is little reason for most people to use it (most existing users will continue on the bus), the willingness to inflict misery on the rest of Centre St only to result in a longer bus on rails will not be strong.

[foolworm]

Ric McIver responded very quickly and not very enthusiastically...

I'm guessing there are going to be more closed door meetings at the Petroleum Club.

[Corndogger]

Originally Posted by foolworm

Ric McIver responded very quickly and not very enthusiastically...

I'm guessing there are going to be more closed door meetings at the Petroleum Club.

Were you expecting the province to rubberstamp a plan they haven't seen? Keating said changes were made as late as midnight Sunday. No one should be okay with this plan proceeding before a complete analysis is done of the implications of the changes.

[Socguy]

Glad to see the city finally got something through. As per the CBC, sounds like the citizens finally got upset enough at the lack of progress that they bombarded city council with support which changed the political calculus in the minds of the foot draggers who realized that it was a major political mistake to continue trying to stall the green line. Now we only have to worry about the Provence...

[jawagord]

Originally Posted by MalcolmTucker

That is one of the issues for the trade off - 2B's costs are low enough that the tradeoff isn't a great one. It isn't $1B, it is $300-400 M. And for that amount, the biggest ridership bang for the buck is to 16th.

Segment 1 of the Green line has a budget of $1.567 billion dollars. That builds 9 stations. Segment 2 has a budget of $1.918 billion. Stopping segment 2 at 7th Ave (It doesn’t need to go to Eau Claire) and you save what $600 million? That would be a 40% increase in SE budget, more than enough money to get out to the new hospital, where the big population numbers are, to me that’s more ridership bang for your bucks than a stub line to 16th or putting a station at the Barley Mill.

Of course if the costs of segment 2a go over budget I expect the city will steal from 2b to fund 2a rather than put more money into segment 1.

Refer to budget expenditure page 16 of

https://pub-calgary.escribemeetings....umentId=131767

[MalcolmTucker]

You need to do at least property acquisition at Eau Claire or you never can go north, since the station at 7th won't be deep enough to go under the river.


Going south of 22x includes a big bridge structure and a tunnel iirc - not just regular surface running. And length means many incremental LRVs are required which are reflected in a different budget.

[foolworm]

Originally Posted by Corndogger

Were you expecting the province to rubberstamp a plan they haven't seen? Keating said changes were made as late as midnight Sunday. No one should be okay with this plan proceeding before a complete analysis is done of the implications of the changes.

No, I expect Gray and his bunch of merry men to start haranguing the provincial government to invoke the guillotine clause since they didn't get their way at City Hall.

[PPAR]

Originally Posted by Corndogger

Were you expecting the province to rubberstamp a plan they haven't seen? Keating said changes were made as late as midnight Sunday. No one should be okay with this plan proceeding before a complete analysis is done of the implications of the changes.

The Province's position is pretty clear to me. The Greenline will be built (politics), slowly (budget).

[Policy Wonk]

Originally Posted by craner

I really hope this is true.

Well it isn't as though a Centre Street subway appears more attainable today than it did a decade ago.

It is just incredibly puzzling to me, the city appears to be prepared to build a Centre Street that will be a poor transit corridor, a horrendous road for other vehicles, incredibly hostile to pedestrians and where there will simply be no place for cyclists. Basically every shortcoming ever raised about a Centre Street alignment was just shrugged off with a meh.

Building this alignment entirely at grade on Centre Street wouldn't be a mega-project and the city has long insisted that the need to grow capacity is already a near emergency, yet even after making innumerable sacrifices they can't seem to make the one that could bring a street car to Centre Street fairly rapidly.

The only conclusion that makes sense to me is that they don't want to build at grade on Centre Street in the first place but they also don't want to over-promise again.

[milomilo]

Originally Posted by Policy Wonk

Well it isn't as though a Centre Street subway appears more attainable today than it did a decade ago.

It is just incredibly puzzling to me, the city appears to be prepared to build a Centre Street that will be a poor transit corridor, a horrendous road for other vehicles, incredibly hostile to pedestrians and where there will simply be no place for cyclists. Basically every shortcoming ever raised about a Centre Street alignment was just shrugged off with a meh.

Building this alignment entirely at grade on Centre Street wouldn't be a mega-project and the city has long insisted that the need to grow capacity is already a near emergency, yet even after making innumerable sacrifices they can't seem to make the one that could bring a street car to Centre Street fairly rapidly.

The only conclusion that makes sense to me is that they don't want to build at grade on Centre Street in the first place but they also don't want to over-promise again.

+10000. I remember thinking you were wrong years ago but you were right on this all along.

[lucx]

Ric McIver's June 18 statement:

We're consistent in saying that we've put money through legislation aside to build the Green Line ... that's always been contingent upon the city building essentially what they promised to build when the money was promised

https://twitter.com/RicMcIver/status...79752583618560

The NDP government pledged $1.5 billion for Shepard to 16 Ave. The UCP can't use the excuse the money was meant for the full 46 km. They're going to fund it. They just need time to find the money.

[craner]

Originally Posted by Policy Wonk

Well it isn't as though a Centre Street subway appears more attainable today than it did a decade ago.

It is just incredibly puzzling to me, the city appears to be prepared to build a Centre Street that will be a poor transit corridor, a horrendous road for other vehicles, incredibly hostile to pedestrians and where there will simply be no place for cyclists. Basically every shortcoming ever raised about a Centre Street alignment was just shrugged off with a meh.

Building this alignment entirely at grade on Centre Street wouldn't be a mega-project and the city has long insisted that the need to grow capacity is already a near emergency, yet even after making innumerable sacrifices they can't seem to make the one that could bring a street car to Centre Street fairly rapidly.

The only conclusion that makes sense to me is that they don't want to build at grade on Centre Street in the first place but they also don't want to over-promise again.

Again ... I really, really hope this is true.

[MalcolmTucker]

A future council can capture the contingency further on (if the tunnel goes well), and while a bridge will still be needed over Prince's Island, a bit of work and $200 million bucks and the 9th Ave station goes away and an underground station goes in at 16th.

[craner]

^That would be perfect!

[accord1999]

I noticed the list of bidders has been released for Green Line Segment 1, anybody have insight on which group has the best chance of winning?

Lead Construction Team Members:

Graham Infrastructure LP (Parent: Graham Business Trust)
PCL Construction Management Inc. (Parent: PCL Constructors Canada Inc.)

Lead Design Team Member:

WSP Canada Inc. (Parent: WSP Global Inc.)

Other team members:

Design Team: Architecture 49, Gibbs Gage Architects, McElhanney, Platinum Engineering Ltd. and Klohn Crippen Berger.
Financial Advisor: TD Securities.

Lead Construction Team Members:

Aecon Infrastructure Management Inc. (Parent: Aecon Group Inc.)
Dragados Canada Inc. (Parent: Dragados S.A.)

Lead Design Team Members:

Parsons Inc. (Parent: Parsons Corporation)
AECOM Canada Ltd. (Parent: AECOM Global II, LLC.)

Other team members:

Design Team: Wood and EXP.
Financial Advisor: Aecon, RBC and ACS.

Lead Construction Team Members:

Salini Impregilo S.p.A. (Parent: Salini Impregilo S.p.A.)
Hitachi Rail STS S.p.A. (Parent: Hitachi Rail Italy Investments S.r.l.)

Lead Design Team Member:

GHD Ltd. (Parent: GHD Group Pty Ltd.)

Other team members:

Construction Team JV: Astaldi.
Design Team: Arcadis Canada Inc., Associated Engineering, and Kasian.
Financial Advisor: National Bank.

https://www.calgary.ca/transportatio...ocurement.html

[MalcolmTucker]

This process is going to be the city optimizing on price/quality as the tender is pretty vanilla--less Canada Line or Mill Woods LRT, more West LRT. Good to see leading Australian and European companies in the mix, with a strong Canadian bid team too.


All bets are off if a bidder throws a wildcard of drastically lower price in exchange for a big technical tradeoff.