The federal budget didn’t include funding for the proposed Broadway subway or Surrey light rail, because, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Global BC, “these are things that aren’t ready to get built starting next week.”
When the TransLink board meets March 30, will it give details about the delay in planning that led to the federal funding delay?
Engineering, planning and business case technical studies on both proposals were supposed to have been completed last summer, according to tendering documents from November 2014 when TransLink was seeking experts.
“Phase 3A will help TransLink identify regional funding requirements, pursue senior government funding and establish local municipal commitments related to the project,” said separate requests for proposals. “TransLink is seeking the best possible level of confidence in financial estimates, within schedule and scope constraints of Phase 3A, targeting +/- 30% cost confidence.”
The documents anticipated completion of Phase 3A by late summer 2015, but according to TransLink, work continues.
“I can confirm that this work you inquired about is still underway and not yet complete,” said TransLink spokeswoman Cheryl Ziola, who declined to make further comment or arrange an interview.
“The federal funding details, for which a business case would be submitted on these two projects, are still being worked out, so we don’t expect to submit a business case until later this year.”
The Mayors’ Council’s 2014 funding plan, which was rejected in last spring’s plebiscite, estimated the Broadway subway would cost $1.98 billion and Surrey LRT $2.14 billion.
Steer Davies Gleave and Hatch Mott MacDonald are leading the conceptual design and cost-estimate study for the Surrey project for $1.56 million. They subcontracted Stantec, Via Architecture, Anthony Steadman and Associates and the Stewart Group.
Stantec is leading the $1.4 million study on the Broadway proposal, with subcontractors Jacobs Associates, Golder Associates, Allen Parker Consulting, Site Economics, Westco Consulting, Ed LeFlufy Urban Design & Architecture, Locke & Locke, Dessau, BTY Group, and Anthony Steadman and Associates.
Stantec vice-president Alan Hartley and SDG associate Dan Gomez-Duran both declined comment.
At a TransLink board meeting last September 25, Fred Cummings, TransLink vice-president of engineering and infrastructure management, said, “We’re at about a plus or minus 30% confidence level in the design.”
However, he said in order to satisfy federal funding requirements, “we have to move that to a plus or minus 15% confidence level. That’s the work that’s going on now.”
Cummings said the next deadline for federal funding applications through the P3 Canada Fund was in March 2016.
The $1.43 billion Evergreen Line was supposed to open in summer 2016, but has been delayed twice because of troubles with tunnel boring. The anticipated early 2017 service launch was announced late last November when the tunnel-boring machine finally broke through.
