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Edmonton picks construction team to tackle $2.6B Valley Line West LRT project building
PHOTO: CITY OF EDMONTON
The 14-kilometre rail line will run predominantly with traffic at street level.
Edmonton has picked a preferred proponent to take on the second half of its new Valley Line light rail transit project.
Discounting any possible issues that may arise during final contract negotiations, the city announced Oct. 30 it has selected the Marigold Infrastructure Partners consortium to design, build and partially finance the 14-kilometre Valley Line West. The team is made up of Colas Canada, Parsons Corp., Standard General Inc., Francl Architecture, Fast & Epp and Stantec Inc.
“We’d like to thank each of our proponent teams for participating in our procurement,” Brad Smid, director for the Valley Line, said in a release. “We’re confident our rigorous competitive process has culminated in the selection of a strong The reconstruction of a complex stack interchange that has been among the largest infrastructure jobs in Quebec over the past several years has entered its final stretch.
In mid-October, the Quebec Ministère des Transports announced the final major team to deliver the Valley Line West LRT at good value for Edmontonians.”
The 14-kilometre transit project is expected to cost $2.6 billion, with construction starting next year and continuing until 2026 or 2027. Running predominantly with traffic, the line includes 14 street-level stops, as well as two elevated stations and connections to Jasper Place, West Edmonton Mall and Lewis Farms. Among other engineering obstacles, the project will require two new bridges, one built over Groat Road and the other crossing Anthony Henday Drive.
The second component of the wider 27-kilometre Valley Line, the “West” segment will connect to the “Southeast” portion, which has been under construction since 2016. The TransEd build team, component of the $3.67 billion Turcot interchange project opened to traffic after approximately six years of construction.
The interchange is a key highway junction on the south end of the Island of Montreal, where highways 15, 20 and 720 converge. Just north of the Lachine Canal, the interchange was initially built in the 1960s and required replacement. Major work got underway in 2015, with the KPH Turcot consortium – made up of Kiewit Corp., Parsons Canada Ltd., CRH Canada Group Inc. and WSP Canada Inc. – taking on the bulk of the work under a designbuild contract.
At peak, more than 1,000 workers took part in the complex demolition and reconstruction project, which has also been a significant source of frustration for consisting of Bechtel Corp., EllisDon Corp., Bombardier, Inc. and Fengate Capital Management Ltd., is heading that project.
Naming Marigold as the preferred proponent ends a fairly rocky procurement period for the western portion of the project. Three teams were shortlisted for the LRT line in June 2019, but two subsequently withdrew from the process, forcing the city to re-evaluate its approach. It paused the project “to fully understand the changing market conditions and evaluate its options” and relaunched the tender process in November 2019.
The city and Marigold teams are expected to finalize the contract by the end of 2020, ahead of the start of
Construction on $3.7B Turcot interchange in Montreal draws to close after six years
PHOTO: QUEBEC MINISTÈRE DES TRANSPORTS
construction next year. the 300,000 or so Montreal commuters and other drivers who travel through the interchange each day.
The nearly six years of rebuilding is designed to keep traffic running smoothly through the three-stack interchange for decades.
Construction covered 56 separate structures, 145 kilometres of roadway and 21 kilometres of rail. In all, the Ministère des Transports noted, the project required 45 million cubic metres of fill, 4,567 separate steel beams and millions of cubic metres of asphalt and concrete.
The opening of Pullman Boulevard Oct. 19 puts construction crews near the finish line. Several final elements, such as landscaping, remain to be capped off until next spring. on-sitemag.com / 7
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The new rules will set a 28-day timeline for owners, GCs and subcontractors to pay invoices for finished work and supplies.
Alberta follows Ontario’s lead, tables prompt payment legislation
A year after legislation that set strict timelines for construction payments came into force in Ontario, the Alberta government is following suit.
Service Alberta Minister, Nate Glubish, announced new prompt payment legislation for the province’s building industry Oct. 21. He said the new set of payment standards builds off industry recommendations and follow years of issues with late payments in the construction sector that kept companies waiting as long as six months to be paid for work already completed.
In a press conference outlining the changes, he pointed to a scenario in which a general contractor may have put off paying a subcontractor, setting off a cascade effect for sub-subcontractors and suppliers down the construction chain.
“In this environment, nobody gets paid on time for the work they’ve completed and this makes it difficult for them to bid on new jobs, it makes it difficult for them to make payroll and to pay their employees, and in many cases, it pushed businesses to the brink of bankruptcy,” Glubish said.
The new legislation, which would amend and rename the Builders’ Lien Act to the Prompt Payment and Construction Lien Act, passed its first reading in the province’s legislature in mid-October.
As in Ontario, the regulations would set a 28-day timeline for owners, contractors and subcontractors to pay invoices. It would also prohibit “pay-when-paid” clauses in contracts, extend timelines for registering liens and introduce new rules for releasing holdback on large projects. An adjudication system for dispute resolution would also be put in place with the aim of avoiding court battles and speeding up rulings.
Frederick Vine, chair of the Alberta Construction Association, said it has been advocating for such changes for a long time.
“These mechanisms help timely completion of construction projects, ensure our employees are not impacted by payment delays and provide better value for taxpayers on public infrastructure projects,” he said in a release.
Building Trades of Alberta (BTA), among numerous other construction groups, joined Vine in welcoming the new legislation.
“This is something Alberta has needed for some time, and we thank the provincial government for bringing it forward,” Terry Parker, the BTA’s executive director, said in a release.
The province plans to work toward passing the bill this fall. Assuming the new prompt payment rules clear the legislature, Glubish said the government will work toward completing the supporting regulations ahead of the bill’s tentative proclamation in July 2021.
Along with Alberta, numerous other provinces are at various stages of enacting prompt payment rules.20_2179_OnSite_DEC_CN Mod: November 2, 2020 9:29 AM Print: 11/17/20 10:32:44 AM page 1 v7
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