Six-month delay in awarding of Stage 2 contracts
Winners of the Stage 2 rail contracts will be announced in the fourth quarter of 2018 after bidders asked for more time to complete their proposals, city staff have told council.
The contracts were scheduled to be awarded in the second quarter of 2018, but the groups bidding on two contracts asked for more time to work on their design and price submissions.
Chris Swail, the city ’s director of O -Train planning, told council in a memo that construction of Stage 2 will still start in 2019.
The time extension benefits the city since the bidders will have more time to nail down the best prices and propose bundling strategies with work on Highway 417 and other transportation projects, the city says.
The extra time will also help bidders work on designs for the Moodie Drive extension and maintenance and storage facility.
The Stage 2 contracts are for the Confederation Line LRT extension and the Trillium Line extension.
Three groups are bidding on the Confederation Line contract and three groups are bidding on the Trillium Line contract. The Trillium Line contract also includes a maintenance component, but the city has already locked in the Rideau Transit Group to maintain the Confederation line.
The complete Stage 2 package is worth $3.6 billion.
Confederation Line trains will run to Moodie Drive, Algonquin College and Trim Road. Trillium Line trains will run to the Ottawa International Airport and Riverside South.
The city is near the end of a federal environmental assessment process and has received funding commitments from the provincial and federal governments.
The $2.1-billion Stage 1, which is the LRT line between Tunney’s Pasture and Blair station, is scheduled to open in November.