Toronto awards Crosstown LRT eastern section
14 Nov 2013
Peter Kenyon, TunnelTalk
- The Aecon/Dragados JV is confirmed as winner of the design-bid contract to excavate the eastern tunnels of the Crosstown LRT project in Toronto, Canada. Official announcement of the Can$177 million award, reported by TunnelTalk four weeks ago, was made by Ontario Minister for Transport Glen Murray on Tuesday (November 12).
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Toronto Crosstown alignment and stations
- In the event only three of the seven prequalified bidders submitted bids, with Aecon/Dragados coming in at $17 million lower than the Engineer's Estimate of $194 million from Hatch Mott MacDonald.
- The award is for construction of 3.25km of twin running tunnels from the future Eglinton Station to a site just east of the future Laird Station. Scope also includes construction of the eastern portal at Brentcliffe Road (Fig 1) from where the 19km LRT line will surface for an at grade connection to the future Kennedy Station (Fig 2) at the eastern end of the alignment.
- Mark Ostler for Metrolinx told TunnelTalk: "The Eglinton Crosstown East twin tunnels contract (Yonge Street to Brentcliffe Road) will construct approximately 3.25km of tunnels using two TBMs and precast concrete tunnel lining segments supplied by Metrolinx. The 5.75m i.d. segmentally lined twin tunnels are to be constructed as a single pair of drives from a launch shaft located east of Brentcliffe Road to an extraction shaft located east of Yonge Street.
- "The contract also includes the construction of the launch and extraction shafts, headwalls associated with future stations, two emergency exit buildings, three cross passages, required utility relocations, traffic staging, ground and building settlement monitoring and site restoration."
- The TBMs will launch westward from Brentcliffe Road (near Laird Station) next year (2014). Completion of the tunnels is scheduled for June 2016.
- "Construction of the launch shaft will take approximately one year depending on the soil conditions at the site. The TBMs are expected to arrive on site in mid-2014, and will be assembled alongside the completion of the launch shaft," said Ostler.
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Eastern portal at Brentcliffe Road
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Mega station contract
Meanwhile, the Metrolinx Board is finalizing approval of a Request for Proposals for a single $4 billion mega-contract to construct all 25 stations along the Eglinton Crosstown LRT route. - "We expect to issue a tender in December and for the bidders to develop further engineering and scheduling detail throughout the better part of 2014. The final schedule for station construction will be provided by the successful bidder," said Ostler. "The RFP will be a design-build-finance-maintain (DBFM) contract for works on the Eglinton Crosstown, including the following infrastructure and works: 25 stations and stops; signals and communications; integration, testing and commissioning, and maintenance of the LRT system; additional infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, utilities, parking, bus terminals, road signing and lighting, traffic management and detours."
- Excavation of the 6.25km of twin running tunnels in the western section of the Crosstown alignment was awarded in September last year (2012) to the Crosstown Transit Constructors consortium comprising Obayashi Canada, Kenny, Kenaidan Contracting and Technicore Underground, for a low bid contract price of $320 million including harmonization tax. The next lowest bidder on that occasion was Dragados/Aecon with a pre-harmonization tax bid of $312 million.
- The first TBM for the western tunnel drives was launched from a shaft in Black Creek Drive at the western end of the alignment in June this year (2013) and has so far advanced approximately 1,000m at rates of up to 20m/day. The machine excavating the parallel tunnel has made about half that amount of progress.
- Metrolinx plans the new line to become operational in 2020.
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Extra tunnels for Toronto Crosstown LRT - TunnelTalk, January 2013
First tunnel award for Crosstown LRT - TunnelTalk, September 2012
Toronto axes 17km of tunnels - TunnelTalk, May 2012
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