‘Significant schedule pressures’ impacting timeline of Stage 2 LRT Confederation line

While Stage 2 LRT construction in the east end of the city is on schedule, the same cannot be said for the west.

That’s according to a memo sent to city council from Michael Morgan, director of rail construction program in the transit services department, that was sent on Friday, June 3, 2022.

“The City is working closely with East West Connectors to maintain the Confederation Line extension schedule,” Morgan wrote. “The project is on the original timeline in the east for handover in May 2022 but there are significant schedule pressures on the western segment of up to a year.”

Confederation Line

Design for Stage 2 of the Confederation Line east and west extensions is expected to be completed by Q2 2022.

In Q2, staff will also continue to review design documents for stations and remaining roads packages.

The review of other works that will be completed following “Substantial Completion,” including the Richmond Road Complete Streets and the decommissioning of portions of the Transitway, will continue in 2022.

Construction work is underway at all Confederation Line extension stages, with “significant progress” being made at Lincoln Fields Station and Carling Avenue where structural steel has been installed over the platforms and the first escalators have been installed.

Progress has also been made on structures in the east, including the Blair Road flyover bridge work with the pouring of the bridge deck.

The construction of the highway bridges at the Montreal Interchange continued, including the completion of six overhead catenary system bases, north approach class, bridge decks and parapets.

Meanwhile, the Greens Creek pedestrian bridge has been constructed and is now ready for placement in early Q2 2022.

In all, about 9 km out of 23 km of guideway barrier walls have been completed to date in the east.

At the western end of the project, Morgan says progress has been made at the Moodie Light MSF, with structural steel erected for the train storage shed building.

Trillium Line

As for Stage 2 of the Trillium Line project, the schedule is tracking towards a “Substantial Completion” and handover to the City in summer 2023.

Design work and review are winding down.

Morgan says staff with TransitNEXT in Q1 2022 to resolve open comments from design reviews for the Trillium Line stations and Maintenance and Storage Facility.

In Q2 2022, staff will continue to review submissions for final common elements submissions for items such as architecture, way finding and signage and landscaping that are applicable to all stations and guideways.

Construction of all Trillium Line stations continues, including platform works, watermain works and structural steel installation through the alignment.

Testing and commissioning started on the test track between Walkley and Leitrim stations.

These activities, he adds, will continue in Q2 2022.

RTG is providing 38 additional Alstom Citadis Spirit light rail vehicles to ensure that the expanded Stage 2 Confederation Line operates as a single, uniform service.

To date, seven Stage 2 vehicles have been accepted and are in use as part of the operating fleet.

As well, TransitNEXT will supply seven Stadler FLIRT vehicles for the expanded Trillium Line.

The first four Stadler vehicles have been delivered to Ottawa.

The three remaining vehicles are expected for delivery in spring 2022.

The funds

To date, $97.2 million of the $115 million contingency fund for the Stage 1 Confederation Line has been spent.

Remaining funds are earmarked for potential future changes, primarily related to property requirements and transit priorities, Morgan explains.

When it comes to the Stage 2 Contingency fund for the Confederation line, $135 million of the $152 million in the fund has been spent, most of which has been allocated to a variety of contract changes including upgrades to gas switch heaters on the line, enhancements to stations connectivity on the line and Trillium line, upgrades to noise mitigations in several locations, improvements to road configurations at Corkstown and Trim roads and more.

“When funds are reserved for contract variations, the upper cost limit for the variation is used and upon completion of the work, unspent monies are returned to the contingency fund,” Morgan said. “For this reason, the funds reserved figure is an estimate that may be higher than the actual amount spent.”

Stage 2 capital budget

In keeping with council’s approved 2017 Stage 2 report and 2019 Stage 2 report, about $2.161 billion has been spent as of March 31, 2022.

This spending relates to RTG MOU for Belfast Yard and vehicle assembly mobilization ($380.9 million), Confederation Line extension mobilization and construction period payments (1.003 billion), Trillium Line extension construction period payments and financial close for the Revenue Vehicles Supply Contract ($426.8 million) and contingency ($14.6 million).

Invoices under review include the period for October 2019 to January 2020, reflecting system performance from September 2019 to December 2019 and February 2020 to April 2020, reflecting the system performance of January 2020 to March 2020.