Confederation Line West LRT Extension (Stage 2) [Tunney's to Baseline/Moodie] | U/C

[Kitchissippi]

I was at Bayshore the other day, and they're currently installing track beside the mall.





The connection to the station is really poorly thought out. If you follow the signs on the second floor it takes you out into the parkade but you have to zig-zag though these stupid barriers, not once but past 2 entrances. How hard is it to just put ramps to straighten up the path?



They should have covered up the signs inside the mall because it's not until the end of the parking lot that you're informed that you have to turn back and go down to street level. WTFing



I didn't take transit, I rode my bike there, which is yet another issue I have with this mall. It's horrible to get there by bike, the place is a car-fortress.

[lrt's friend]

We really didn't start considering bikes as transportation until around 2010. Before that, it was mostly recreational. At least, we started considering rapid transit around 1980.

[LRTeverywhere]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

I didn't take transit, I rode my bike there, which is yet another issue I have with this mall. It's horrible to get there by bike, the place is a car-fortress.

That should get partially better with stage 2 opening, there will be a mup from the east side of Richmond, routes under Richmond beside the tracks and to the station.

[Richard Eade]

Originally Posted by LRTeverywhere

That should get partially better with stage 2 opening, there will be a mup from the east side of Richmond, routes under Richmond beside the tracks and to the station.

If the 'MUP' from Richone Road's east side that you refer to is what I am seeing in Kitchissippi's first photo, it will not really be comfortable to ride on - since it is a concrete sidewalk, complete with stress joints.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

I didn't take transit, I rode my bike there, which is yet another issue I have with this mall. It's horrible to get there by bike, the place is a car-fortress.

Literally. It's surrounded by all sides with walls of car infrastructure.

[Kitchissippi]

Originally Posted by Richard Eade

If the 'MUP' from Richmond Road's east side that you refer to is what I am seeing in Kitchissippi's first photo, it will not really be comfortable to ride on - since it is a concrete sidewalk, complete with stress joints.

It also relies on using Richmond Road which currently has incomplete bike infrastructure, and even if that's done you'll have to contend with the on and off ramps to the Queensway.

The unconventional route I take to go into the mall — and I wish the city and the mall would widen and formalize it as a MUP with signage — is to use Elstree Avenue and the narrow pathway and sidewalks to Bayshore Drive and Woodridge. This leads to the mall's designated bike parking area, which is hard to find from the street if you didn't know its location.

[Kitchissippi]

I took this photo on Byron Avenue where Richmond road is currently diverted for LRT construction. They recently put these permanent-looking bus shelters on either side of Byron which is a bit of a mystery to me because the road will probably be returned to its original geometry by the end of the year. Seems like an unnecessary expenditure for a temporary situation. I doubt buses will use Byron in the future as the city plans to break it into segments.

[LRTeverywhere]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

I took this photo on Byron Avenue where Richmond road is currently diverted for LRT construction. They recently put these permanent-looking bus shelters on either side of Byron which is a bit of a mystery to me because the road will probably be returned to its original geometry by the end of the year. Seems like an unnecessary expenditure for a temporary situation. I doubt buses will use Byron in the future as the city plans to break it into segments.

I don't think its that big of a deal, a bit of concrete and a bus shelter that they can reuse elsewhere after. It may be temporary but by the end of the year is still many months where it could be raining on waiting passengers.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by LRTeverywhere

I don't think its that big of a deal, a bit of concrete and a bus shelter that they can reuse elsewhere after. It may be temporary but by the end of the year is still many months where it could be raining on waiting passengers.

The bus stop on Laurier at U of O was uprooted YEARS ago, and the promised shelter at the new/temporary/permanent/who knows anymore location still hasn't materialized. There is exactly one sheltered bus stop on Bank Street north of the Rideau Canal.

I'm all for temporary solutions to bus stop shelter issues, but at some point I'd like to see some permanent ones as well, and in places where the issue has been neglected or ignored for so long. It is very frustrating to see this level of investment in a temporary problem while urban bus passengers are expected to wait in the rain, snow, and full summer sun.

[rocketphish]

Council OKs secret settlements over Stage 2 LRT construction
The motion came after a lengthy in-camera session during Tuesday's council meeting in which councillors were briefed in secret about the legal wrangling.

Blair Crawford, Ottawa Citizen
Published Jun 25, 2024 • 2 minute read

City council has given the go ahead to settle outstanding legal claims over the construction of Stage 2 of the LRT, but the public isn’t going to know how much they cost, who’s getting paid or even which of the east, west or south extensions of the LRT they cover.

But we do know the payments are costly enough that the city is asking the federal and provincial governments to help pick up the tab.

The motion came after a lengthy in-camera session during Tuesday’s council meeting in which councillors were briefed in secret about the legal wrangling.

According to the motion, details of the settlements, which are being delegated to the city manager to resolve, “are not to be reported out publicly, as they relate to litigation and are covered by solicitor-client and settlement privilege.”

Pressed by reporters after Tuesday’s meeting, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said the settlements are not unusual for projects as large as the LRT.

“We decided we’d go to other levels of government and ask for their help in resolving claims that are related to COVID delays and delays related to other issues that have come up,” Sutcliffe said.

“We’re not alone in this. There are some unique aspects to our light-rail system and struggles we’ve encountered, but what we talked about today is more in the category of the kinds of things being faced by infrastructure projects all over North America,” he said.

“I know people will look at this and say, ‘Oh, we’re settling legal claims. It must be that we’re settling legal claims because of our light-rail system that are unique to Ottawa.’ That’s not what these are. They’re more consistent with the experiences of what every public transit infrastructure and other forms of infrastructure — bridges, roads … — have experienced during COVID.”

Bickering between the city and the LRT builders was one of the criticisms in Justice William Hourigan’s inquiry into the troubled first stage of the LRT. Sutcliffe said the decision to settle is part of improving the relationship between the city and the contractors.

“What I hear is that relationship is in good shape at the moment, and that’s why we’re working to resolve these claims with our contractors,” he said. “We don’t want them, if we can avoid it, to go down that long, costly road toward litigation with a lot of frustration and expense on both sides.”

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...t-construction

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

Council OKs secret settlements over Stage 2 LRT construction
The motion came after a lengthy in-camera session during Tuesday's council meeting in which councillors were briefed in secret about the legal wrangling.

Blair Crawford, Ottawa Citizen
Published Jun 25, 2024 • 2 minute read

City council has given the go ahead to settle outstanding legal claims over the construction of Stage 2 of the LRT, but the public isn’t going to know how much they cost, who’s getting paid or even which of the east, west or south extensions of the LRT they cover.

But we do know the payments are costly enough that the city is asking the federal and provincial governments to help pick up the tab.

The motion came after a lengthy in-camera session during Tuesday’s council meeting in which councillors were briefed in secret about the legal wrangling.

According to the motion, details of the settlements, which are being delegated to the city manager to resolve, “are not to be reported out publicly, as they relate to litigation and are covered by solicitor-client and settlement privilege.”

Pressed by reporters after Tuesday’s meeting, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said the settlements are not unusual for projects as large as the LRT.

“We decided we’d go to other levels of government and ask for their help in resolving claims that are related to COVID delays and delays related to other issues that have come up,” Sutcliffe said.

“We’re not alone in this. There are some unique aspects to our light-rail system and struggles we’ve encountered, but what we talked about today is more in the category of the kinds of things being faced by infrastructure projects all over North America,” he said.

“I know people will look at this and say, ‘Oh, we’re settling legal claims. It must be that we’re settling legal claims because of our light-rail system that are unique to Ottawa.’ That’s not what these are. They’re more consistent with the experiences of what every public transit infrastructure and other forms of infrastructure — bridges, roads … — have experienced during COVID.”

Bickering between the city and the LRT builders was one of the criticisms in Justice William Hourigan’s inquiry into the troubled first stage of the LRT. Sutcliffe said the decision to settle is part of improving the relationship between the city and the contractors.

“What I hear is that relationship is in good shape at the moment, and that’s why we’re working to resolve these claims with our contractors,” he said. “We don’t want them, if we can avoid it, to go down that long, costly road toward litigation with a lot of frustration and expense on both sides.”

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...t-construction

So we are paying out from these lawsuits? How is that possible? Secret indeed.

[Williamoforange]

Originally Posted by YOWetal

So we are paying out from these lawsuits? How is that possible? Secret indeed.

Force majeure

Is likely the answer here, Contractor for all three lines likely came back at the city for more money related to covid delays and since the Covid pandemic & thus its accompanying restrictions were unforeseeable the city is one the hook to pay for the cost increases from delays.

Which is also likely why not much has been said about penalties being given out to the contractors in relation to them being late.

[Richard Eade]

The secrecy is what is killing me. How does the City expect to keep a multi-million dollar payment secret?

We need to increase your taxes by some secret amount.
We have requested funding from upper levels of government, but we haven’t told them how much.

This is insane. They are simply making matters worse and worse. People already distrust the contracts.

STOP MAKING EVERYTHING SECRET!

Just use that huge publicity department and put out the facts. They don’t need to include all of the details. But something along the lines of:

The City had negotiated a solid contract with the contractors, to deliver the LRT extensions for a fixed price. This transferred most of the risk to the contractor. However, in contract law there are conditions where this can be exceedingly unfair; to the detriment of both parties. In an effort to help get the LRT up and running as the best system that it can be, the City has negotiated an extra payment of $(insert amount) to the contractors. This is not a gift. It is to help even the balance that was thrown off by conditions well beyond the expectations of either party. The additional funds will help provide a more reliable system that can be in service faster.

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by Richard Eade

The secrecy is what is killing me. How does the City expect to keep a multi-million dollar payment secret?

We need to increase your taxes by some secret amount.
We have requested funding from upper levels of government, but we haven’t told them how much.

This is insane. They are simply making matters worse and worse. People already distrust the contracts.

STOP MAKING EVERYTHING SECRET!

Just use that huge publicity department and put out the facts. They don’t need to include all of the details. But something along the lines of:

The joys of P3, no transparency. We complained about this in 2006, that the contract was secret, one of the reasons for cancellation, but lack of transparency is inevitable in any sort of arrangement like this. It is worse that this is the biggest infrastructure project in city history, but the taxpayers are offered next to nothing to judge for themselves whether our politicians are doing their jobs properly.

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by Williamoforange

Force majeure

Is likely the answer here, Contractor for all three lines likely came back at the city for more money related to covid delays and since the Covid pandemic & thus its accompanying restrictions were unforeseeable the city is one the hook to pay for the cost increases from delays.

Which is also likely why not much has been said about penalties being given out to the contractors in relation to them being late.

So not only do we not get reimbursed for delays (most of which were nothing to do with Covid) but we pay them for the increased costs. Sounds like a great legal win. Keeping this secret is kind of scandalous. Can the Feds give us money without reveailing how much it was?

[Williamoforange]

Originally Posted by YOWetal

So not only do we not get reimbursed for delays (most of which were nothing to do with Covid) but we pay them for the increased costs. Sounds like a great legal win. Keeping this secret is kind of scandalous. Can the Feds give us money without reveailing how much it was?

Eh... most of the delays are COVID related

And if this was force majeure, then it's pretty normal with a normal result.

The arbitration itself being secret is a good thing, keeps the politics out of it. The result being kept secret, not a fan.

[phil235]

Originally Posted by Williamoforange

And if this was force majeure, then it's pretty normal with a normal result.

The arbitration itself being secret is a good thing, keeps the politics out of it. The result being kept secret, not a fan.

I'm not sure about it being a force majeure, as most force majeure clauses did not cover Covid. Can't be sure about this specific one, but odds are that it didn't apply.

Force majeure doesn't necessarily put the extra costs on the city, it just absolves the contractor of meeting its obligations. Obviously the contractor would have leverage here, as the city needs to get the project done and it can't easily replace the contractor. Nonetheless, if force majeure did apply, the change to cost sharing would have been the product of negotiation, not an automatic default to the city paying.

[rocketphish]

Ottawa's LRT settlement sacrifices accountability for (maybe) cost savings
The broad perception is that secret settlements are cheaper than those that are made public.

Randall Denley, Ottawa Citizen
Published Jul 03, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 3 minute read

Ottawa Council’s decision to seek yet another secret legal settlement with companies building the LRT violates the basic principle that taxpayers must be told how their money is spent. Without that, there can be no accountability.

After a lengthy in-camera meeting last week, councillors authorized the city manager to start new settlement talks to resolve issues with companies building Stage 2 LRT. What issues? The city didn’t specifically say. What contractors? That’s confidential. What would the settlement cost? You’ll never know. Who pays? You do.

Taxpayers can expect a substantial bill for something they know nothing about. The potential sum is so large that the city says it will ask the federal and provincial governments to help pay it.

It’s an outrageous situation, but councillors have a semi-plausible reason for handling it the way they have.

After the meeting, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said, “It’s unfortunately a normal part of infrastructure projects that are being worked on during COVID, and we’re trying our best to resolve them in the best interest of taxpayers.”

In this case, best interest of the taxpayers means paying the least amount of money to settle the claim, even if it means sacrificing the transparency and accountability one would normally expect from a city government.

Unfortunately, governments have already set a precedent by covering part of the additional costs due to COVID-related delays. The provincial Crown corporation Infrastructure Ontario has settled 67 claims for COVID construction delays and has a policy of keeping them secret.

Only a few COVID delay claims have been reported publicly, and they’re huge. In 2021, Metrolinx and Infrastructure Ontario paid $325 million to cover COVID delays on Toronto’s Eglinton Crosstown LRT, a $5.5-billion project. In January of this year, the federal government agreed to pay an additional $700 million to compensate for delays in building Windsor’s Gordie Howe Bridge, which links that city to Detroit. The project was originally budgeted at $5.7 billion.

Stage 2 of Ottawa LRT is expected to cost nearly $5 billion. Every situation is different, but delay costs here could easily be in the hundreds of millions. It’s easy to see why city councillors want to keep the costs down and are counting on federal and provincial help. Those governments made the COVID rules, not the city.

The perception is that secret settlements are cheaper than those that are made public. The theory is that as long as the deals are confidential, the people settling the next one won’t know what the companies are prepared to accept. It’s an argument undermined by the number of secret deals that Infrastructure Ontario has been involved in. Surely the Crown agency knows the going rate for settlements by now.

The secrecy benefits both those paying the settlements with public dollars and those receiving the cash. With limited public reporting, taxpayers remain unaware of the huge sums paid to construction companies for pandemic-related delays. Were the true total known, the public would be outraged and other companies that suffered pandemic damage might wonder when they could collect.

City councillors have decided that the benefits of secrecy trump the virtues of public accountability. They could argue that the city is just a cog in a system that treats infrastructure contractors generously and the number of secret settlements already made left them with little choice.

That doesn’t explain why their chose secrecy last year when the city reached a settlement with Rideau Transit Group, the people behind the ill-fated first stage of the LRT. The city had withheld maintenance payments to the contractor due to poor service, and rightly so. In the end, a deal was cut but the financial details were never publicly released. That problem wasn’t the result of unforeseen COVID delays.

Secrecy on this latest deal was a sure thing. It’s best for councillors who don’t want to justify the payout and best for the companies who want to keep their sweet deals out of sight. We’ll never know if it was best for taxpayers.

Randall Denley is an Ottawa journalist and author. Contact him at randalldenley1@gmail.com

https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/de...e-cost-savings

[rocketphish]

Multi-million-dollar settlement talks prove LRT secrecy still a concern
Decision to settle quietly likely informed by Toronto's Eglinton Crosstown case

Elyse Skura · CBC News
Posted: Jul 09, 2024 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 5 hours ago

Ottawa's latest light rail transit legal woes are highlighting an issue that's been a concern since before the troubled system got rolling: transparency.

From questions about the bidding process to a confidential deal giving builders millions of dollars in backpay, taxpayers remain in the dark about many of the city's financial entanglements.

The legal secrecy is far from unusual, but with so many ongoing problems many residents, taxpayers and riders are demanding more information.

This next iteration of settlement talks, worth what sources with knowledge of the claims say amounts to tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, is even more opaque, with the city declining to even confirm which companies are asking for money.

After nearly five and a half hours of debate spread across two council meetings, councillors carried a motion late last month to instruct the city manager to carry out these talks. No one dissented nor asked for a recorded vote.

But that sign of unity came after a debate on transparency behind closed doors, sources told CBC, with one saying every single person involved has concerns about how much information can be shared.

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe did provide some details, including that claims stem from the next phase of light rail construction. That means the eastern and western extensions of the Confederation line, and the newly expanded north-south Trillium line.

He blamed pandemic-related delays, though sources suggest more is at play.

"These are not unusual. They're common for infrastructure projects. There are some that have been settled and been talked about publicly. There are others that are still in process," said Sutcliffe.

"There's some that have been settled and we haven't heard about them because they're confidential."

Matti Siemiatycki, director of the University of Toronto's infrastructure institute, said cost escalation on major projects has been "rampant" since 2020, sometimes inflating budgets by 40 per cent.

"This is a massive increase when you're talking about billion-dollar projects," he said. "And in many cases the fallout is now working its way through the system, and there are disputes that need to be settled related to who's going to pay."

The builders argue governments placed restrictions on the work because of COVID-19 policies, which affected their progress in ways they could not have predicted when signing a contract, he explained.

When councillors met in private, Siemiatycki said lawyers were likely explaining ways to determine what's a pandemic-related expense and how to equitably split the financial hit among the public-private partnership.

To see Ottawa's legal future, we might only need to look as far as the Greater Toronto Area.

The Eglinton Crosstown project has striking similarities to Ottawa's LRT, with the public inquiry into this city's transit woes pointing to contractual elements, and even the key players themselves.

Just like in Ottawa, extensive delays have led Metrolinx to stop issuing intended start dates, and earned the project its fair share of criticism over transparency issues.

But when Metrolinx and Infrastructure Ontario faced a legal challenge from P3 contractor Crosslinx, they went to court — and lost.

A superior court judge would not stay the case, arguing that the contractors could not have foreseen and accepted pandemic risks, and need not bear the irreparable harm that could come from delaying a decision until the project is done.

The public partners vowed to fight against the case's "broad repercussions," and announced about half a year later that they'd reached a settlement with Crosslinx worth $325 million.

Siemiatycki said this situation has laid bare the flaws in P3s, which has long been advertised to taxpayers as a way to finance massive projects without cities taking on a huge financial risk.

"Ultimately that risk transferred on paper is not necessarily risk transferred in practice, and on these big projects the contractor can only bear so much risk," he said.

"The public-private partnership model, certainly in Ontario, the bloom is off the rose on that when it comes to public transit."

In particular, governments are moving away from fully bundled construction and maintenance deals, which tie them to contractors for decades after new lines are built, he said.

That would have removed one of the more prickly aspects of Ottawa's ongoing LRT issues: the need to maintain trust with contractors who they must continue working with while trying to solve disputes.

In Ottawa many of the city's private partners are involved in multiple major projects, a situation Siemiatycki says is common across the construction industry.

For example, AtkinsRéalis, formerly known as SNC-Lavalin, has a 40 per cent stake in Stage 1 builder Rideau Transit Group and a 25 per cent stake in Crosslinx.

It also won the Trillium Line contract through its subsidiary TransitNext.

Councillors first discussed a claim from TransitNext against the city last year, when it was brought up through an independent review of risks associated with the line.

The February 2023 report urged the city to quickly resolve the issue, warning that "due to the claim, transparent communication between both parties is reduced which leads to, possibly, a lack of trust and, potentially, an incorrect vision of the actual project progress by the City."

Renée Amilcar, general manager of OC Transpo, assured transit commissioners that informal discussions were underway, with the goal of maintaining a "very good relationship."

At the time, the line was set to open that fall.

City staff no longer provide launch timelines, but told CBC on Friday that teams are still working on "testing, training and construction," and would provide more details as the city approaches the start of a 21-day trial run.

While the city has not officially confirmed this as one of the active claims, CBC confirmed that detail with sources who are unable to speak publicly.

AtkinsRéalis is also fighting its own legal challenges from subcontractors who allege they're owed money for track and road work.

As the city works on a potentially costly settlement, it continues to struggle with both the financial viability of providing public transit, and the need to find a sustainable solution for ongoing technical problems that caused delays, derailments and an erosion of public trust.

The city told CBC it met with its partners earlier this month to discuss ways to solve a bearing issue that caused a Confederation Line derailment nearly three years ago, but would not share details.

As councillors gather Wednesday for their final meeting before a summer break, they are set to get yet another closed-door legal briefing on the first LRT phase.

What will be discussed? The city won't say, and possibly never will.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...cern-1.7257125

[Kitchissippi]

Steel structure is up at Sherbourne including the railing along the station pit.