Eglinton Crosstown to open a year later than expected

The precise reasons aren’t clear.

At the Thursday morning event, McCuaig acknowledged the provincial agency had been expecting to deliver the project earlier. But in talking to the bidders about the construction and the community needs during the build, the date was changed to 2021.

Later, Metrolinx issued a statement attributing the date change to work “done to enhance the bid documents.”

The scope of the project was changed based on the decision not to include the replacement of the Scarborough RT, according to the statement. That, in turn, affected the tendering process.

“Initially we expected to go out to tender in June 2013. We are pleased with the realistic schedule submitted by Crosslinx Transit Solution, and full service will begin in 2021,” the agency said.

Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca stressed at the news conference that it was important to take the time to ensure the project and contract were delivered properly.

A statement from his office later Thursday said the Crosstown wouldn’t operate until 2021, “to mitigate disruption to the local community and infrastructure as much as possible.”

The estimated cost of the Crosstown construction contract with Crosslinx, a consortium led by SNC Lavalin, is about $4 billion. The cost of the 30-year maintenance agreement is unknown. The contract is being handled by the government’s public-private partnership agency, Infrastructure Ontario.

The TTC will operate the 25-stop LRT, which will run underground from Black Creek Dr. to Brentcliffe Rd., then at street-level farther east to Kennedy Station.

McCuaig said that time lost in launching the giant tunnel-boring machines from Brentcliffe Rd. will be made up during the tunneling to Yonge St. by the end of 2016.

Once the tunneling is complete, it will take about four years to build the stations, 15 of which will be underground. He warned that there will be traffic disruptions, with Eglinton being narrowed to a single lane in each direction for much of that time.

“We try to limit the amount of impact we have on the business community, the amount of construction activity that limits people’s access to their properties and businesses,” he said.

In 2012, the TTC warned that Metrolinx’s aggressive timeline would lead to severe construction-related disruptions to communities and traffic along Eglinton. An expert review of the proposed schedule suggested that large stretches of the road would have to be torn up at the same time to meet the deadlines.

The review was led by the TTC’s former chief capital officer Sameh Ghaly, who was fired earlier this year in connection with delays on the Spadina subway extension he was overseeing. The TTC has brought in outside engineering firm Bechtel to manage the final 30 per cent of that project and expects it will open by late 2017.

The Crosstown delay is the second piece of bad news out of Metrolinx this week. A report to its board Tuesday showed that ridership on the Union Pearson Express train it launched in June has dipped. It is averaging only about half the 5,000 daily riders it had set as a target by the end of its first year.