Hamilton LRT delays force city to consider road fixes that will only be ‘torn up again’ later
Mayor Andrea Horwath said she will reach out to the province to seek clarity on when LRT procurement will finally start.
https://www.thespec.com/news/council/ham...349cef6-202b-5f12-b4c0-e55a8abce8ec.html
Hamilton’s long-delayed light-rail transit project is starting to cause repair backlogs as the city weighs whether to fix failing road infrastructure along a 14-kilometre corridor meant to be ripped up for LRT construction — someday.
Serious planning for the off-again, on-again LRT has been underway for most of a decade, with government funding first offered in 2015, cancelled in 2019 and resurrected during the pandemic.
But more than three years since the “shovel-ready” project was re-announced with $3.4 billion in construction funding, Ontario and its transit agency, Metrolinx, have been silent on when the two-phase build will go to tender.
The city’s LRT director at one point suggested major work could start in 2024, but later said “procurement delays” had left the timeline unclear.
That timeline mystery is becoming “really problematic” for a city facing increasingly urgent calls to fix roads and infrastructure along the Main-King-Queenston transit corridor, said Mayor Andrea Horwath in an interview.
Horwath, who pledged Friday to formally contact the government in writing with the city’s timeline concerns, raised the spectre of Hamilton being forced to do pricey road repairs only to see that work “torn up again” soon after because of the planned big dig for LRT.
“That drives people batty and it drives me batty too, so we don’t want to see that,” she said. “But that means we need to get some clarity in term of timelines from the government because those (needed road repairs) are getting worse, not better.”
Horwath said she has verbally raised those concerns with provincial ministers, but has only received vague assurances that the project is “going to move forward.”
By email, Metrolinx said Friday it is in “regular communication” with the city on the LRT project and that any update on procurement timing “will be shared as it is confirmed.”
Earlier this month, The Spectator asked Metrolinx for a project schedule update. The agency said “enabling works” like relocating utilities off the corridor would continue next year, but did not specify when formal procurement — like vetting prospective bidders for major construction — is expected to start.
Timeline frustration came up repeatedly at the latest LRT council subcommittee meeting Friday from city politicians, builders and business representatives.
There are many developers trying to plan building projects along the proposed LRT line, said Michelle Diplock of the West End Home Builders’ Association at the meeting. “People are really looking for some certainty about when and how they time their construction,” she said.
Businesses along the corridor are also impatient for LRT details needed to plan for relocation, growth or just weathering what is expected to be years of construction, said chamber of commerce head Greg Dunnett.
“What I hear from small businesses is that they are done waiting,” he said. “Tell me when this is actually going to impact me … (that) is what we hear over and over again.”
The city, meanwhile, is trying to co-ordinate — or delay — construction projects big and small along the presumed rapid transit corridor.
The biggest project in planning is a two-way traffic conversion of Main Street through the core that the city hopes to construct without conflicting with major LRT work on parallel King Street.
But downtown residents and businesses are asking for many different smaller improvements on King Street, including fixing sidewalks, replacing light standards and adding new pedestrian safety improvements, said Ward 2 councillor Cameron Kroetsch.
“What we hear a lot is, well, we’re not going to do all these (repairs) if we’re going to have to tear the road up for LRT,” he said.
That response always spurs the same question from frustrated residents and businesses, Kroetsch said. “When is LRT coming? When is it going to start?”
Lacking an LRT project timeline, Kroetsch argued the city will have to commit to spending millions of dollars on repairs — even knowing the work may be wasted.
“I think nobody wants that to be the case, but we’re at a tension point now because (the project) has been going on for so long.”
Neither Metrolinx nor the province has publicly explained why the project is moving more slowly than originally expected.
But The Spectator obtained provincial documents earlier this year suggesting “priority” transit projects like Hamilton’s have seen inflationary cost spikes of up to 30 per cent.
It’s not clear if the expected project cost still fits within the $3.4-billion construction budget announced in 2021.
Metrolinx also announced a major design change late last year that will axe a planned train-only bridge over Highway 403 in favour of rerouting the transit line down Dundurn Street and across the Main Street car bridge.
An updated route design should go public by the end of the year.
Prev
Linear Mode
