Edmonton council approves $30M to find contractor for Valley Line West LRT

The City of Edmonton will spend$30.5 million during the process to select the winning bidto build the Valley Line West LRT from downtown to Lewis Farms.

City council approved the money on Tuesday to start the procurement process,which is expected to take a year.

It will include engineering consultants, legal experts,construction preparations like relocating utilitiesandpre-construction surveys, the city says.

That's in addition to $179 millionthe city has already approved for design, route work and land acquisitionfor the 14-kilometre west portion of the Valley Line.

The total cost to complete the west portion of the Valley Line LRT iscurrently estimated at $2.7billion, including land costs.

Coun. Tim Cartmell and Coun. Mike Nickel voted against Tuesday's spending request, while Coun. Tony Caterina and Bev Esslinger were absent from the meeting.

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During the council meeting, Cartmell argued that slow-moving LRT isn't much better than the bus system in place now.

He said fixed rails in the pavement are not the way to go.

"We've had street cars before and trolley buses before and got rid of them for a reason," he said.

Cartmell said he's in favour of mass transit to reach the city's edges.

"This one line only serves the people who are very close to that alignment, and will not do much to move the needle on people that are still moving around with vehicles."

'Not a street car'

Mayor Don Iveson noted the Valley Line LRT is a low-floor urban train.

"This is not a street car," Iveson told council. "It was never designed as such. It is rail transit running in a dedicated corridor."

Iveson said the Valley LRT line is not designed to be a suburban commuter line.

"It's stopping more often than the traditional model that we've seen here in Edmonton, because it is designed to serve more communities and support more redevelopment."

The trip from Lewis Farms to downtown will take an estimated 29 minutes, Iveson said.

"It is different than the bus service that runs today," he said. "The buses are stuck in traffic today, and as traffic gets worse buses stuck in traffic will get slower."

The entire 27-kilometre Valley Line stretches from Mill Woods in the south through downtown then west to Lewis Farms. The $1.8-billion southeast portion of the line is currently under construction and was originally projected to open in 2020 but is now behind schedule.

• Valley Line Southeast LRT behind schedule, Edmonton council told

The west portion includes 14 street-level stops and two elevated stations at Misericordia Hospital and West Edmonton Mall, as well as a transit centre at WEM.

The line includes two new bridges on Stony Plain Roadover Groat Road and on 87th Avenue over Anthony Henday Drive.

I think LRT has become kind of this religious dogma- Coun. Mike Nickel

The next step is for the city to issue a request for qualifications for companies to bid on the project.

Bruce Ferguson, manager of integrated infrastructure services, said the city expects to choose a short-list of proponents by mid-2019.

"It's a long complicated process where you've got progressive reviews with every proponent," Ferguson said.

The city will then choose a winning bidder by February or March 2020, he said, with the goal of starting construction later that year.

Coun. Mike Nickel has criticized the project before and said the city should wait until the Valley Line southeast is complete before moving ahead with more low-floor style train.

"This as a business decision, is a horrible decision probably the worst I've ever seen."

Nickel accuses the majority of council of refusing to see reason.

"Today what you're seeing is just a blind fundamentalism a religious fervour," he said."I think LRT has become kind of this religious dogma of a certain contingent on city council.It's become irrational."

The province has pledged $1.04 billion for the project.

The Valley Line West LRT could be up and running by 2027.

@natashariebe