As Calgary prepares to name Green Line builder, lessons from Ottawa factored in
Canada's capital has an LRT headache that lingers years after it opened
While Ottawa continues to cope with its troubled LRT system, Calgary is about to forge ahead with an even bigger project as it vows to learn from problems in the capital.
Ottawa's beleaguered O-Train Confederation Line opened in 2019 after years of delays.
What followed was a series of mishaps — from malfunctioning doors on trains and falling overhead power lines to derailments and ongoing service issues.
It all led to the Ontario government calling a public inquiry to get to the bottom of what went wrong.
That inquiry's report, made public last December, found a multitude of problems.
The list included:
- Choosing unproven LRT technology.
- A delivery model for the project which left the city with little control over the builder's work.
- A lack of integration which resulted in complex and uncoordinated working relationships.
- Political pressure to rush to put the LRT line into service.
- Derailments and ongoing service issues.
Calgary officials have pored over the inquiry report and are promising that the lessons from Ottawa are not lost on them as those responsible for the Green Line prepare for a major decision.
The president and CEO of the Green Line team, Darshpreet Bhatti, said Calgary has already avoided a major issue that has hobbled Ottawa's first LRT line.
It selected its preferred LRT vehicle before even deciding who will build the system.
He said that vehicle will dictate a lot of the civil engineering works that go into an LRT line, because each part has to work with that specific vehicle.
"The reality is if you do know the vehicle sooner and it's sort of set, it helps everyone. Because then you have a baseline," Bhatti said.
"The baseline is not moving with you. It's established. And you can say, 'OK, these parameters are set, and I can go and work with those parameters.'"
Proven vehicle, different model
Ottawa chose a new type of vehicle that had never been operated in a cold weather climate. The inquiry report found that led to a number of problems.
Bhatti said Calgary's choice of vehicle will be manufactured by a Spanish company, CAF (Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles), and it's a proven car that has worked in other cities and in different climates.
The CAF Urbos 100 is a low-floor vehicle that's bigger than Calgary's current fleet of high-floor LRT vehicles.
Bhatti also pointed out that Calgary has chosen a completely different type of model for delivering the city's next LRT line.
Ottawa chose a type of public private partnership (P3) called a design, build, finance and maintain contract.
He said the companies that bid for these major projects have learned much since the early days of Ottawa's LRT experience.
Ottawa officials gave up control of some of the design specifics for their system to the builder but they also transferred much of the financial risk of this major project to the consortium responsible for delivering the LRT line.
For example, in Ottawa a major sinkhole opened up during the construction of a two kilometre LRT tunnel downtown.
The dispute caused bad blood between the two partners. Ultimately, the contractor had to absorb the additional costs.
Bhatti said Calgary, on the other hand, has chosen a design-build-finance model for the Green Line.
But that has also been augmented by what's called a development phase at the front end.
The Green Line team went to the market to see who is qualified to build something of this magnitude.
Two groups of companies were selected to bid.
Over the past year, the city has been working with those bidders by providing information about the alignment, the station locations and other information about the Green Line.
The two groups presented their best proposals and after months of conversations, the city will select a winning contractor this spring.
He said the city and the chosen consortium will move forward as partners, not potential adversaries.
Bhatti said the successful bidder will refine the final design over the coming year and then tell the city what it can build for the money that the city has assembled.
That's a key item for the city because ultimately it alone would be responsible for any potential cost overruns.
The winning consortium will choose the materials and oversee an army of subcontractors who will do the work while it keeps an eye on the budget.
Bhatti said what's needed is an experienced main contractor who knows how to manage a megaproject of this scope.
"In the long run, you want a good relationship. It's up to people to deliver this. If we rely on a contract, we will fail," Bhatti said.
"We need to rely on people that we're bringing on board and what relationships we're building with them. So development phases, to me, is one of the best tools we can employ to say, let's be a good partner and show that through our actions. Both ways."
Lessons from Ottawa
Getting Ottawa's LRT line into service also suffered through missed deadlines that created political pressures from council and administration to complete the job.
The LRT inquiry found that the city manager shared information with only certain members of council. There was also a lowering of performance standards by the city during the system's testing period in order to get the LRT line into revenue service quicker.
Ottawa's city manager resigned his position shortly before the LRT inquiry's report was made public.
By contrast, Calgary has chosen a completely different method of governance for delivering the Green Line.
Council created a Green Line board to oversee all aspects of the project's development, from concept to implementation.
The board of independent experts reports quarterly to city council's executive committee.
One of its key members, city manager David Duckworth, said he can take questions or concerns from council members at any time or they can consult with Bhatti.
They can also do that in a public forum.
He said any communication he has to share with council members will go to all elected officials, not just the mayor.
One thing he's adamant about is that the kind of things that happened in Ottawa around getting the LRT into service will not be duplicated here.
"With respect to fast-tracking a project and potentially compromising public safety, employee safety, I can assure you that would not happen here. That wouldn't happen here under my watch and I couldn't imagine it happening really under anyone's watch here in Calgary.
"Employee and public safety is paramount in everything that we do."
The track ahead
The city currently does not have a deadline or a target date for the Green Line to even open.
Bhatti has said 2030 is a potential date for the completion but it isn't known yet.
That will depend on what happens over the coming year.
Once a development partner is named, officials will finalize the design with the idea that construction would begin sometime in 2024 or even 2025.
So far, the city has already committed more than $900 million on the Green Line.
That money has been used to acquire land, do design and engineering work, hire staff for the Green Line team and do enabling works, which are aimed at easing the construction process.
That work includes building some structures, removing underground utilities that might interfere with the project and clearing the right of way for contractors.
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