Work on Valley Line behind schedule, committee hears
Work on the southeast stretch of the Valley Line LRT is “trending late,” city council’s executive committee heard Monday.
The first stage of the Valley Line is supposed to be operational by 2020, but a 2018 third-quarter update shows that the project’s “schedule performance” is only at 77 per cent adherence to the timeline.
In June 2018, the project was at 80 per cent adherence — roughly one-year behind schedule.
Adam Laughlin, Edmonton’s head of infrastructure, said he couldn’t put a timeline on exactly how late the project could be, and said it — or the possibility of getting caught up and finishing on time — is still being determined.
“It’s trending late. It’s in TransEd’s court to remedy that,” he said.
The 13-kilometre route between Mill Woods and downtown is being built through a public-private partnership between the city and the TransEd group.
One of the sources of delay was the unexpected, car-sized chunk of concrete buried in the path of construction on the line’s bridge across the North Saskatchewan River, said TransEd spokesman Dean Heuman Monday.
After determining it couldn’t be completely removed, Heuman said they broke off some of the chunk, and incorporated some of the remaining bits into the base.
There have been other issues, such as unexpected ground conditions and having to re-do a span of concrete.
Heuman wouldn’t put a time frame on the 77 per cent adherence — he said that’s a city measure. He said TransEd is working hard on options to make up lost time.
“I believe that if we got a number of these initiatives in place, we would certainly be very close to, if not actually meet, that deadline,” he said.
One time-saving measure would be the temporary full closure of 95 Avenue where it bisects the Strathearn neighbourhood, so multiple crews can operate at one time, but residents of the area have expressed displeasure with the proposal.
Other time-saving ideas are still under discussion with the city, and Heuman said there will be a construction update on the project in March.
Mayor Don Iveson said the contract with TransEd is structured to incentivize them to make up for lost time, but he said it’s premature to speculate about delays.
“When we’re all ready to talk about it, once negotiations are complete, then there will be more to say about it. The contract puts a very strong emphasis on performance by a certain date,” he said.
Coun. Mike Nickel said he’s been saying for years that the project would be late, and the update Monday wasn’t surprising.
“This is kind of why I voted against the west line, because I said let’s fix the one we have, which is the Metro Line. Let’s finish the one we’ve got, which is the Valley Line, before we start doing any more LRT. At the end of the day, I wonder when council is going to realize this LRT has gotten away on us,” he said.
Nickel was the sole member of committee to vote against sending administration’s proposal that the line’s west extension be partially privately financed to council for approval.
The contract puts a very strong emphasis on performance by a certain date.
Committee also passed a motion Monday directing administration to come up with a “if this, then that” plan to deal with problems with traffic shortcutting on the streets around Glenora school, in an attempt to avoid the LRT during its construction and operation. Administration had planned to wait until 2023 to introduce mitigation measures, but representatives from the school’s parent community want to have solutions ready to get ahead of safety issues.