Stadium delay lessons will keep LRT on track: Metrolinx
Lessons learned from Hamilton’s late stadium debacle will help keep the city’s $1-billion LRT project on track, say provincial transit planners.
The city’s $145-million stadium was handed over last May months late and unfinished. Deficiencies and disputed work items worth millions of dollars remain outstanding even now, with the stadium warranty looming this spring.
The only penalty for builder Ontario Sports Solutions was a delay in being paid by provincial project overseer Infrastructure Ontario.
But there will be “much stron- ger requirements” built into the contract for Hamilton’s light rail transit line, said Metrolinx project lead Andrew Hope, who assured councillors Monday there were “lessons learned” from the city’s never-ending stadium construction.
Hope told the city’s LRT subcommittee that Metrolinx projects in the works in Mississauga, Toronto and Hamilton all incorporate extra tools designed to hold mega-builders to account if they fall behind. That includes the right for Metrolinx to levy “monetary deductions” for late delivery — or even step in to stop work or fire a subcontractor, if needed. “We’re going to make sure we monitor ev- ery aspect of delivery,” Hope said.
Coun. Lloyd Ferguson moved a motion at the committee Monday to ensure those promises are referenced in the new memorandum of agreement between the city and Metrolinx slated to be ratified by council next month.
Ferguson, a former construction industry boss, regularly railed about the lack of late penalties attached to the stadium build.
“Obviously, the consequences of not being paid were not severe enough to speed things up,” he said Monday. “We need to spell out serious late penalties. Can you imagine having King and Main (streets) torn up from the university to the traffic circle for an extra year because of delays?”
Committee members heard work is already underway to update the environmental assessment for the project, which now includes a spur to the James Street GO station and a shorter main line running from McMaster University to the Queenston traffic circle.
Committee members also heard the latest work schedule is designed to lock in the LRT project before the next round of provincial and municipal elections in 2018.