Leaders from Metrolinx and Infrastructure Ontario (IO) provided an update on what is coming down the pipeline in 2022 during the Ontario Road Builders’ Association Summit.
Phil Verster, president and CEO of Metrolinx, talked about the progress on transit expansion projects across the province. The Hurontario LRT, Finch West LRT and Eglinton Crosstown LRT are moving ahead at a decent speed despite the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, as is the Scarborough Subway Extension.
“It was a little more than a year from the date we went out with an RFP to the date construction work started on the site,” he said about the Scarborough project.
For the Ontario Line, two of the three phased contracts will be let in the next couple of months. Metrolinx is also working with York Region and partners on the Yonge North Subway Extension.
For the GO expansion, there is a huge amount of work and procurements that are going to be released for Barrie, Kitchener and Lakeshore, said Verster, adding the big one is the On-Corridor.
“It’s in excess of a $10 billion contract which has been three years through the development stages as well as in market and is now on the cusp of being awarded to a first negotiations proponents. We’ll be announcing that as well imminently and that will move forward,” he said.
Verster also spoke about the benefits of alternative models including the alliance model, which was used on the Union Station project.
“There is better risk identification, better mitigation, better delivery, better achievement of schedule,” said Verster. “We are extremely positive about this direction of travel.”
One of the biggest progressive design-build contracts Metrolinx will unveil is for stations, rail and systems on the Scarborough Subway Extension.
We’re going to move 11 of our projects from procurement into the construction stage this year
— Michael Lindsay
Infrastructure Ontario
“The progressive design-build company, the p(roject)co that wins this work will have a development phase with us during which time we address all of the risk,” explained Verster. “This is not a full alliance, but it’s a long step towards an alliance…The really positive thing about this is it’s a significantly better risk transfer but it also allows both the project co and ourselves to deal with some of the components of the project that are not in the project co’s scope.”
Michael Lindsay, president and CEO of IO, stated the organization released its first market update for 2022 in January and there were 39 projects in pre procurement and active procurement totalling an estimated $60 billion in contract value.
“Eleven of our projects are probably going to come to financial close in this year and we’re going to move 11 of our projects from procurement into the construction stage this year,” said Lindsay.
“The list of projects we’re doing this year also includes 14 government announced projects in the early stages of planning for which scope timing and delivery model are still being determined in close discussion with our industry about the best way in which to bring those projects to market.”
IO is being particularly careful in getting the staging right for the projects, he added.
“We know it’s an exceptionally hot construction industry out there right now and we want to make sure we are providing people with the right lead time associated with being able to team and prepare for our projects which are often big in size,” he said.
“We know that market capacity is not just defined by the availability of construction labour but equally by the availability of the advisers who help us and help our counter parties think about how to do these projects.”
He also talked about the opening of Highway 427 in September 2021.
In terms of other roads projects, the construction of the Highway 401 expansion from Mississauga to Milton is occurring and anticipated to be complete this year. Construction has also been underway for about a year on the QEW/Credit River bridge improvement, which Lindsay referred to as “the most important deferred maintenance need of the Ministry of Transportation.”
Crews are working on preserving some of the heritage features of the original bridge.
From a procurement perspective, IO is in the market right now on a Highway 3 project between Essex and Leamington and anticipates coming to financial close later in the year.
Highway 17 between Arnprior and Renfrew and the RFQ associated with it should be starting at some point this spring.
The Government of Ontario has added to the pipeline with the Bradford bypass, said Lindsay. IO is also still working with the Ministry of Transportation to finalize planning related to the Garden City Skyway, the second most important deferred rehab project in the province.
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