Region to pay rejected LRT bids
Posted Apr 10, 2013 11:49:40 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Waterloo Regional council has approved paying the losing bids for the light-rail transit project.
Of the three companies vying for the contract, the two losers will get $200,000 dollars each.
Councillor Jim Wideman tells 570’s Gary Doyle Show it could have been more.
“We had advice from our general engineering consultant that we should consider paying nothing.”
Wideman adds, “Then we had advice from Infrastructure Ontario that we pay $800,000.”
He notes Ottawa paid $6-million to the losing bids for its LRT system.
Wideman says they are paying the losing bidders to ensure all three companies put forward their best proposals.
But more importantly, he says if there is something council likes in the two losing bids — such as newer technology — they will be able to incorporate it into the winning bid.
The region also estimates that each consortium will spend $2-million putting together a plan to design, build, operate, maintain, and finance the LRT project.
Listen to Gary Doyle’s interview with Jim Wideman below:
