Ottawa LRT announcement set

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson will make an announcement about the city's light rail project Thursday.

City councillors who have been briefed on the announcement have told CBC News that the city has found a way to combine affordability and functional design.  

CBC reporter Alistair Steele said there may be some modifications to the LRT plan, but the project is expected to come very close to its $2.1-billion cost estimate.

Watson will make the announcement at 3 p.m. to a roomful of invited guests.

The price of steel has risen substantially since the city made its original estimate, so keeping the project at cost likely means a major alteration of the original plan is inevitable.

A downtown tunnel has already been shortened by a third and one station that was originally slated to go underground will now be at street level, but neither of these changes has brought down the overall cost.

Steele said it's clear that Watson will not be announcing any more money from the higher levels of government. The province and the federal government each have $600 million on the table and that's not changing, sources say.