City should postpone bids for Green Line contracts until downtown plan is set, says community group

A Beltline community group is asking the city to postpone bids for Green Line contracts until there's a plan in place for the downtown stretch of the line.

Calgary is still evaluating plans for that section of the $4.6-billion transit project, but it's already accepting bids on the 16-kilometre stretch that will run from Fourth Street to 126th Avenue S.E.

Peter Oliver, president of the Beltline Neighbourhoods Association, says people should be concerned because past cost-cutting on transit led to LRT stations being moved above ground and further from the locations where they're more sorely needed — but locations where stations would also be more costly to build.

"Because the downtown and the Beltline make up the heart of the Green Line, it's the most critical part of the network we have to get right," he said.

"Our concern is that if we're looking at cost trade-offs downtown and in the Beltline, we need to be looking at cost trade-offs along the entire line."

Oliver says he'd rather see costs cut at the planned maintenance bays than at core stations that would see the highest use.

But Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi says the allegation that asking for bids before the whole line is finalized will mean cost cuts for downtown is "not exactly correct."

He says the longer, south stretch of the line is straightforward to build and getting the contracts out soon will mean more competition.

"So you can get local, national, international bidders and you can achieve cost reduction. And those cost reductions, in fact, can be used as we figure out the really complicated part, which is the downtown, Beltline part."

But Oliver says that competition will still exist if bids are delayed.

The city is investigating ways to shorten the tunnel through downtown and bring as much of the line to the surface as possible. 

The opening of the project may be delayed to 2027.