GrandLinq to design and operate region’s LRT
Posted Mar 4, 2014 08:13:30 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Another step has been taken in the long journey to get the ION on the tracks.
The planning and works committee passed a staff recommendation to allow GrandLinq to design, build, finance, operate, and maintain Light Rail Transit.
Kitchener Mayor Carl Zehr tells 570 News that the public should have confidence in the group.
“I believe GrandLinq consortium is a good consortium of people and companies and I have full confidence that they will be able to deliver.”
Zehr adds selecting GrandLinq to tackle the LRT is a big step in a major project.
“It is about building this community, it is about nation building, and this is about having a good transit system as well as preparing ourselves for the next 20-50 years.”
Kitchener Waterloo Cambridge Transit partners and Tricity Transit System were the other consortiums that put in bids but
GrandLinq had the highest overall technical and financial scores among the three contenders.
GrandLinq bid $532 million to build the system plus another $61 million in other construction projects such as roadwork. That total of $593 million is in line with the Region’s $818 capital budget for the transit system. Including the operating, financing and maintenance costs, that’s $1.7 billion over 30 years.
Mayoral Candidate for the City of Waterloo, Dave MacDonald was one of the twelve delegates to speak at Tuesday’s meeting and says he has concerns about the project but was not surprised by the vote
“I really hope that going forward, that if this continues and does go forward, that it brings the results that they hope it will bring. I have my concerns about it but certainly I’m not in a position to say whether I’m going to support it or not support it. I’m still listening to what the voters of Waterloo and the Region have to say.”
The majority of the delegates spoke in favour of LRT and thanked council for their hard work.
The vote to hand the reigns over to GrandLinq will be ratified by Regional Council on March 19th.
