US$3.5 billion light rail line in Calgary to be built and financed by private partner

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US$3.5 billion light rail line in Calgary to be built and financed by private partner

The City of Calgary, located in Alberta, south-west Canada, has confirmed that the majority of the Green Line light rail transit (LRT) project will be procured using a single Design-Build-Finance model. A Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for the CAD4.7 billion (US$3.54 billion) project will be issued in Q2 of 2019.

In addition, on 30 January 2019 the Government of Canada, Government of Alberta and The City of Calgary signed a funding agreement for the project. The agreement represents CAD3 billion (US$2.26 billion) in funding, with equal portions from the provincial and federal governments. The funding will flow over eight years to support Stage 1 of the Green Line.

Stage 1 is recommended to extend 20km from 16 Avenue N (Crescent Heights) to 126 Avenue S.E. (Shepard), crossing the downtown core of the city. This will be the longest segment of LRT ever constructed at one time in Calgary's history. It will include 14 stations, a Centre City tunnel, a light rail vehicle (LRV) maintenance facility, and approximately 70 low floor LRT vehicles.

In addition to the main contract, a number of supplemental contracts will be released utilizing a variety of procurement models. On February 1, 2019 The City released the RFQ for the Green Line’s new fleet of Light Rail Vehicles (LRV). The Green Line will use low-platform LRV technology that has not been used before in Calgary.

The scope of the other supplemental contracts and their expected release to the market will be outlined in a future briefing. The specific date of this briefing will be issued in the upcoming briefing for the release of the main contract RFQ.

Stage 1 is projected to begin construction in 2020, and is anticipated to open in 2026.

The City intends to expand the line in affordable and incremental pieces to the north and the southeast as funding becomes available.

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