Hello, Ward 8 Neighbours!
At our General Issues Committee (GIC) meeting on May 15, 2019, Hamilton City Council received a project update from LRT Project Office Director Kris Jacobson (click here to download a copy of the report).
The following is a summary of the Hamilton Light Rail Transit (LRT) progress update…
LRT Project Schedule & Procurement
Hamilton’s LRT project is currently in the procurement phase.
The initial Request for Proposals (RFP) was issued by Metrolinx on April 12th, 2018 and is now expected to close in April 2020.
There are three construction consortiums currently preparing bids for the Design, Build, Finance, Operate & Maintain (DBFOM) contract.
Additional information from Infrastructure Ontario about the three pre-qualified construction consortiums can be found here.
More information about the LRT procurement process (including a copy of the RFP document) can be found at Infrastructure Ontario’s Hamilton Light Rail Transit information page here.
Metrolinx has resumed property acquisition along the LRT corridor and expropriations (as required) will begin in the next 12 months.
Demolition work will begin as early as this summer with some in-ground prep work also expected this year.
Substantial completion is still planned for 2024.
Hamilton LRT Financing & Budget
As part of the April 2019 budget, the Provincial Government has re-confirmed their commitment to fund $1B towards Hamilton’s LRT project.
The final bid value will not be know until the end of the procurement process in April 2020.
Negotiation of the Maintenance and Operations Agreement is expected to be complete by the summer/fall of 2020.
The current estimate for the net maintenance and operations costs (to be covered by the City of Hamilton) are around $5M annually.
Staff also announced that the City is expected to maintain fare revenue from the operation of the completed LRT.
There may also be a possibility that Metrolinx has anticipated indexing the project budget to account for inflation between the initial budgeting in 2014 and the anticipated procurement award in 2020.
(A motion was made by Councillor Clark to request further clarification about what is paid as capital costs and if the Province/Metrolinx will in fact index the project budget)
To date, Metrolinx has invested $151M and committed another $20M towards the project (total invested + committed = $171M).
Media Coverage and Further Discussion
Councillor Farr and I joined Bill Kelly on AM 900 CHML for a full hour in depth discussion on the current status of Hamilton’s LRT project – listen here:
Click the links below for media coverage of the meeting:
The Spec – Hamilton Councillors Want Answers About Feared Budget Overruns for $1-billion LRT
CBC – Some Hamilton councillors frustrated that they haven’t seen an LRT budget
Global News -Hamilton LRT Contract Now Likely To Be Awarded in Late 2020
More Information About Hamilton’s LRT
If you would like more information about Hamilton’s Light Rail Transit (LRT) project, please visit the City’s LRT information page here.
We’d also love to hear from you at the Ward 8 Office – you can contact us directly at 905-521-3958 or Ward8@hamilton.ca
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