There are still no decisions on whether some of Calgary’s existing contracts will be maintained for the winding down Green Line LRT project, after a meeting of provincial and city officials Friday.
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek, Premier Danielle Smith and Transportation minister Devin Dreeshen held a meeting Friday morning with city and provincial officials in Red Deer during the Alberta Municipalities annual convention.
Global News has learned the meeting was to review the contracts as well as implications to the city if those deals were cancelled.
In a statement, Gondek described the meeting as “productive,” similar language as was used after a meeting held last week.
“In the interest of taxpayers, I’m focused on every way that wind-down of the original Green Line project can be carried out in a manner that retains the highest value and benefit for Calgarians,” she said.
Days after city council voted to wind down the project, Gondek sent a letter to Smith and Dreeshen urging the province to preserve portions of existing work as they seek a new alignment.
According to the city, leveraging existing work and contracts would also serve as an opportunity to reduce the estimated minimum $850 million in costs to wind down the project.
Over the last week, city and provincial administrative teams have been reviewing the contracts for the LRT project after the province agreed to Gondek’s request.
“Specifically, discussions have been focused on three of the 70 current contracts — design, light rail vehicles (LRV) and retention of the specialized technical resources to review the design progression from 4 Street S.E. to Shepard,” the city said in a statement.
In a statement following the meeting, Dreeshen said the province is committed to “delivering a Green Line that meets the needs of Calgary’s commuters.”
“We continue to work productively with the City of Calgary towards a cost-effective Green Line alignment that connects the Red and Blue Lines, the new event centre and southeast communities,” he said.
But with no decisions coming out of Friday’s meeting, experts warn time is of the essence with several major transit projects underway across the country.
“A lot of these materials, people and supplies are in incredible demand,” Leading Mobility Consulting principal David Cooper told Global News. “We need to figure out what we’re building, or Calgary will miss out.”
The provincial government has tapped engineering firm AECOM to seek an alternate above-ground alignment, which is expected to be finished by December 2024.
Calgary city council voted to wind down the Green Line project last week after the provincial government pulled its $1.53 billion share of funding for the first phase of the line.
Dreeshen sent a letter informing the city of the province’s decision earlier this month, which noted concerns with minimized ridership due to a truncated scope for the project’s first phase, as well as the plan to tunnel under the downtown core.
That followed a council decision in July to shorten the first phase of the line due to cost escalations that brought the total budget to $6.2 billion.