Infrastructure Ontario, the ministry responsible for tendering all of the province’s large infrastructure projects has listed the Hamilton LRT, in what it calls the “planning phase.” The IO definition of that term means the project would still have to go through the request for qualification phase (RFQ) where interested contractors or consortia are identified and shortlisted. After that. the project would go to a competitive request for proposal (RFP) in which the groups would submit bids. IO was unable to estimate how long it would take to advance through the three stages, but Metrolinx has said that major construction would begin next year. Metrolinx crews have resumed the demolition of some of the buildings they acquired for the project.
That moves the project back from where it was in 2018. Then, the Hamilton LRT had actually advanced to the RFP phase when it was believed the budget for the project was $1 Billion. That RFP failed to attract bidders. Then in December 2019, the Ford government pulled the plug on the project, only to reinstate it in 2021 after intense lobbying.
An Infrastructure Ontario spokesperson told the Bay Observer that during the current phase of the contract, consultants are engaged to drill down on the fine details of the Metrolinx project plan to identify possible obstacles such as utility relocation that might result in unforeseen delays. “We want to get as good an idea of the real costs of the project, so there are no surprises when we move to the prequalification phase,” said IO spokesperson Ian McConachie.
The funds pledged for Hamilton LRT so far sit at $3.4 Billion, split evenly between the Province and the Federal government. The province, however will be on the hook for any costs beyond the $3.4 billion under the current arrangement. The construction climate has changed considerably since 2021 with projects routinely running over budget, and communities in some cases competing to find qualified contractors. In late 2021, a Calgary transit official told his council that he had no confidence that a planned extension to that city’s LRT would come in on budget. In 2022 it was revealed that Toronto’s new Ontario Line would likely cost $20 billion after it had originally been estimated at $10.9 billion
The whole LRT project is a giant waste of taxpayer dollars, the technology of self driving vehicles is on the horizon making putting steel tracks in the ground is ridiculous. Also Hamilton is now facing a unprecedented property tax increase with no bettter service levels. Its time for municipal governments to rethink how they do there budgets, startvfrom zero and justify expenses.
Self driving cars need roads for self driving cars, and if everyone has a self driving car we could all just put them together into one self driving car. Batteries take long to charge and tbe cars are already on designated routes so might as well just put them on overhead wire. Tires and asphalt wear each other out fast so we should switch to steel wheels, but to make turns we then require rails instead of roads. Oops, we made a train. It’s called efficiency.