Problems with LRT traced to city hall

Re: Ottawa’s LRT experience offers lesson in perils of publicprivate partnerships, Feb. 21. David Reevely missed possibly the greatest risk to LRT: the experience and competence of city hall. From this flow the missteps he describes.

For a complex project, with so little defined at the beginning, you must have contingency: at least 10 per cent and, more properly, 20 per cent. Then, there’s inflation. Who left this out? It’s always an issue for multi-year contracts.

Operating and upkeep costs can be, over 30 years, twice to three times the purchase price. How can these not be considered in the bid?

This all smacks of city hall being so desperate for LRT, it left out all the safeguards. The mayor talks of all the risk being with the contractor.

Does he know that a risk premium will have been included in the bid?

If this report is an inside job, as Reevely tells us, and it, on its own, sets alarm bells ringing, what lies beneath? David Morris, Nepean