Cost to build the Ontario Line now tripled at $34 billion and climbing
· Toronto Sun
See more Toronto Sun on Google — save as a Preferred Source
Visit mwafrika.life for more information.
Costs associated with the Ontario Line subway construction project continue to escalate, Metrolinx boss says.
“When the Ontario Line began as a project, we lived in a different world with respect to major capital project delivery,” Metrolinx CEO and president Michael Lindsay told reporters on Tuesday. “We have experienced one of the worst supply chain shocks in the last several decades, trade uncertainty, but I can tell you that the direct costs of every single item on the Ontario Line are competitively bid and we progressively develop these projects with our partners precisely because we want to have that kind of line-item scrutiny on the costs.”
First announced in April 2019 by Premier Doug Ford, the Ontario Line is a 15.6-km-long standalone rapid transit line that will link Exhibition Place to an area near Don Mills Rd. and Eglinton Ave., near the site of the now-closed Ontario Science Centre.
Three times the cost
On Tuesday, Lindsay said the awarding of a $4.32 billion contract for three kilometres of tunnelling underneath Pape Ave. and the construction of two underground stations has pushed the current cost of the Ontario Line to around $34 billion. That is more than three times the original $10.9 billion cost estimate that was relayed in 2019.
Running underneath Pape Ave. in the city’s east end from near Gerrard St. north to the Don Valley near the Millwood Ave. bridge, the $4.32-billion contract will also include construction of two stations — one at the existing Pape TTC Line 2 subway station at Danforth Ave., and a second about 1.2 km north at Cosburn Ave.
The contract was announced on Aug. 6.
However, the CEO warns that the new expected cost is “under pressure.” He says it’s not possible to give an accurate estimate until a much later date.
Speaking of completion, when the project was announced seven years ago, the estimated completion time was early in 2027, but that time has now been pushed back indefinitely, with the latest completion time somewhere in the early 2030s.
Lindsay says Metrolinx is trying to squeeze every nickel out of the overall price point as costs are more than likely to increase in the future.
“It is absolutely true to say that the direct costs of these projects continue to go up, whether it is fighter jets, transit or hospitals or whatever it is,” Lindsay said. “We take it very seriously though at Metrolinx that we need to do everything we can to condition those costs and make our expenditures as efficient as they can be for taxpayers.”
— With files from the Toronto Sun