Green Line Board in Canada has decided to implement the Green line light rail transit (LRT) through a new phased procurement strategy, with the first phase building the LRT from Shepard to Eau Claire, connecting the southeast to downtown and into the existing Red/Blue lines. This decision comes after taking cost and risk estimates into consideration for the project. Earlier the plans involved the implementation of stage 1 of the project in three different segments, with different contractors.

Don Fairbairn, Executive Chair, Green Line Board, said: “Moving forward with a new procurement will bring greater cost certainty and ensure we can deliver on our mandate to build Green Line, within Council approved direction, on behalf of our funding partners and for Calgarians.”

The Board has reviewed the cost and risk estimates for the Green Line LRT project and has confidence in the processes, data and estimates completed by the project team. The project escalation costs are being reviewed by large infrastructure projects across North America. As a reference, every 0.5% in escalation costs equates to more than CAD100 million (USD82.79 million) for Green Line.

The Board will advance phase 2 of the Council-approved plan, from Eau Claire to 16 Avenue N., if cost of escalation and other risks do not materialize in phase 1. The phased construction is in line with Council’s original direction to build the Green Line in a stage-gate project approach.