City councillors get update on LRT construction
Posted Mar 6, 2018 11:22:00 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA — Members of the city's Finance and Economic Development Committee will get their first monthly update on Confederation Line construction, today, but also a primer on the contract between the city and the builders.
Last month, Rideau Transit Group informed the city it would not meet the original completion date in May, and pushed back the deadline to November. That left many confused about why the city wasn't receiving a much-touted $1-million cash penalty.
City staff explained at last month's FEDCO meeting that the builders would have been assessed the penalty if they had committed to the May deadline and then missed it.
Staff insist there are still financial consequences for RTG as a result of the delayed handover of the Confederation Line to the city, as it continues to pay the construction costs during the delay but is left waiting for its large, final payment upon completion of the system.
“They have hundreds of millions of dollars on the table, including a 30-year, multi-billion-dollar maintenance agreement,” said John Manconi, the city's general manager of transportation services. “We control the cash flow to them; we control their profit margins.”
This morning's FEDCO meeting will see staff provide an overview of the project agreement, including the tools at the city's disposal to protect itself from cost overruns and delay costs.
Listen to Transit Commission Chair Stephen Blais' full interview on 1310 NEWS' Ottawa Today with Mark Sutcliffe:
