News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 02, 2020
A Message to Our Readers
 9.1K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
EarthCam Time-Lapse Documents Rafael Viñoly-Designed New Stanford Hospital Construction
 40K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
Resort Town
 5.2K     0 

unimaginative2

unimaginative2

Senior Member
Member Bio
Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Messages
4,554
Reaction score
10
The Federation of Canadian Municipalities has produced a list of 1,000 infrastructure projects ready to start in 2009. They're asking for funding as part of the federal government's stimulus program. Here's the complete national list.

Projects in Toronto:
  • Replace and Expand the LRT Vehicles - 204 LRV, 126 Subway Cars, 36 SRT cars -- $368,000,000 -- 4,201 jobs
  • TTC Station Modernization and Accessibility Improvements -- $29,000,000 -- 331 jobs
  • Union Station $75,000,000 856 jobs
  • Rehabilitation of 9,000 Social Housing Units -- $100,000,000 -- 1,142 jobs
  • 500 New Affordable Housing units in Regent Park and other sites -- $100,000,000 -- 1,142 jobs
  • Sheppard East LRT -- $360,000,000 -- 4,110 jobs
  • Finch LRT -- $349,000,000 -- 3,984 jobs
  • Eglinton LRT -- $1,231,000,000 -- 14,054 jobs
  • Scarborough RT Conversion -- $85,000,000 -- 970 jobs

I can't fathom why resurfacing the downloaded portion of the QEW wouldn't be on that list. Or, for that matter, some kind of Gardiner project. In fact, unlike most municipalities, Toronto didn't include any road maintenance or water system project. You'd think that new Coxwell trunk sewer tunnel would be at the top of the list.
 
Last edited:
If you go far down the list, you see all sorts of wishes for Brampton - mostly roads and transit and building upgrades. (Peel is asking for social housing and waterworks improvements) The Acceleride Phase II projects (basically the phases beyond the approved Queen and Main lines) are reasonable, as are bus replacements, terminal expansions, and fleet expansion but there's some really nutty line items.

AcceleRide Bus Rapid Transit Reserve ROW Queen St. - Downtown to Hwy 50 Public Transit $420,000,000 4,795
AcceleRide Bus Rapid Transit Reserve ROW Main St. - Hwy 407 to Mayfield (GTA) Public Transit $455,000,000 5,195
AcceleRide Bus Rapid Transit Reserve ROW Steeles - Lisgar to Hwy 427 (GTA) Public Transit $700,000,000 7,992

Who said BRT is cheap?

Mississauga has a short (much shorter than Brampton's), but solid list of roads and infrastructure projects, but has added "BRT added costs" as a line item. Funny.
 
Last edited:
unimaginative2 said:
I can't fathom why resurfacing the downloaded portion of the QEW wouldn't be on that list. Or, for that matter, some kind of Gardiner project. In fact, unlike most municipalities, Toronto didn't include any road maintenance or water system project. You'd think that new Coxwell trunk sewer tunnel would be at the top of the list.
Click to expand...

Our roads department isn't short of funds. The reason work is delayed in that department (now) is primarily staffing issues. They can't seem to issue all of the contracts to spend the money they are given.

If you doubled their budget, they would spend 25% of budget instead of ~50% of budget.
 
rbt said:
Our roads department isn't short of funds. The reason work is delayed in that department (now) is primarily staffing issues. They can't seem to issue all of the contracts to spend the money they are given.

If you doubled their budget, they would spend 25% of budget instead of ~50% of budget.
Click to expand...

I suspected as much. More TO projects probably didn't make it because they weren't 'shovel ready'. And for that there's nobody to blame but the city's politicians and staff.
 
And if that does get approved it would be cool if they start 3 different Transit City lines at the same time, particularly the Eglinton one.
 
unimaginative2 said:
Projects in Toronto:
  • Replace and Expand the LRT Vehicles - 204 LRV, 126 Subway Cars, 36 SRT cars -- $368,000,000 -- 4,201 jobs
Click to expand...


  • I guess they would demand that the new LRT Vehicles be built in Canada?

    Can they guarantee that? Didn't the military just get criticized this week for ordering trucks from Navistar....trucks that Navistar will build in Texas while laying off workers in Chatham?
 
TOareaFan said:
I guess they would demand that the new LRT Vehicles be built in Canada?

Can they guarantee that? Didn't the military just get criticized this week for ordering trucks from Navistar....trucks that Navistar will build in Texas while laying off workers in Chatham?
Click to expand...

They did. However, defence contracts have offset requirements, mandating that the winner has to do a percentage equivalent of the contracts worth of business in Canada. In Navistar's case, all the parts are being sourced in Canada.

Looking at this from a broader perspective...the moment we start demanding that stuff should only be built in our home countries, is the moment we reach the end of international trade. There is no need to build the LRVs in Canada to sustain Bombardier. The OECD is asking all the countries to put forward a stimulus worth 2% of GDP for precisely this reason. It would allow trade to continue and avoid the protectionist instinct kicking in. That way, maybe Siemens would win the contract for Toronto's LRVs and Bombardier can keep winning contracts the world over for subway cars, light commercial aircraft, etc. If we decide that LRVs should be built only in Canada, we should be prepared for the Europeans and Americans who have larger markets to shut out our OEMs.
 
Old Miss has a poor shopping list for transit other than the BRT poor boy considering Hazel is crying the blue on transit these days.

TTC needs to get their head around to see that the 204 LRT's are not enough to meet current needs, let alone 10 years from now. They need a longer list of wish list.

Where is Metrolinx shopping list??
 
kEiThZ said:
They did. However, defence contracts have offset requirements, mandating that the winner has to do a percentage equivalent of the contracts worth of business in Canada. In Navistar's case, all the parts are being sourced in Canada.

Looking at this from a broader perspective...the moment we start demanding that stuff should only be built in our home countries, is the moment we reach the end of international trade. There is no need to build the LRVs in Canada to sustain Bombardier. The OECD is asking all the countries to put forward a stimulus worth 2% of GDP for precisely this reason. It would allow trade to continue and avoid the protectionist instinct kicking in. That way, maybe Siemens would win the contract for Toronto's LRVs and Bombardier can keep winning contracts the world over for subway cars, light commercial aircraft, etc. If we decide that LRVs should be built only in Canada, we should be prepared for the Europeans and Americans who have larger markets to shut out our OEMs.
Click to expand...


I agree with that....just wondering how they can guarantee that this expensive infrastructure project will create 4,200 jobs....if any!!!
 
Is the Eglinton LRT really "shovel ready"? I thought it was in the very initial stages of design. I wonder about a couple of the other ones as well. This looks more like a "wish list" for all of the largest projects that are in the pipeline, planned for the next several years.
 
Observer Walt said:
Is the Eglinton LRT really "shovel ready"? I thought it was in the very initial stages of design. I wonder about a couple of the other ones as well. This looks more like a "wish list" for all of the largest projects that are in the pipeline, planned for the next several years.
Click to expand...

Sheppard East, Finch West and Eglinton will have completed the EAs in the next several months, making them "shovel ready"

Of course, there's still a valid EA complete for the Sheppard Subway to Victoria Park and design already largely done. It might actually be the most "shovel ready" project in Toronto (considering that they say they've already started the Spadina extension) and wouldn't take much before the city could issue tenders.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top