The bedrock downtown is shale, and can be very soft. This isn't like Montreal where you can just tunnel through the bedrock willy-nilly. You may even need to underpin.
Since these are Progressive DB contracts, the DPA allows the preferred proponent to collaborate with the client to develop the designs, requirements, and actively negotiate on the cost. In the end, they create a project agreement that is more achievable because it was developed together. Some of the advantages are that the cost estimate can be more precise and that it creates a more amicable working relationship between the proponent and the client.
Would you say that once the DPA is signed the deal is done in the sense that the government can't back out?
I wouldn't say that is necessarily the case, that depends on the specific language that is used. But, there is definitely an expectation that the group you've been working with during the development phase will also continue with the actual execution of the work. In a way, that could signal intention.
If tunneling were to start some point in 2027 followed by stations being constructed and then testing and whatever else in between. It doesn't appear that this line will open by 2031 as the new projected date that Metrolinx has stated.
TBM's only just began tunneling for the Broadway subway in Vancouver and that is expected to be substantially completed in 2.5 years for a Q4 2025 opening (though a delay is quite possible). Length is comparable to the Pape tunnel. Supposedly the TBM's will "pass through" the already excavated pits of the future stations, and it will only take about a year to bore ~4km of tunnel. I know Toronto's geology is different but certainly 4-5 years is enough time to tunnel ~3.15km and build 2 stations? I also don't see why work couldn't begin in 2026 when the contract will be awarded between January and March 2026
The $9 number is almost entirely for 30 years of operating, not capital construction. Only maybe a billion or two is actual construction.
While I'm a fan of westward expansion (and the two stations on King), he does have a point.
I find this figure to be highly suspect. A billion or two is how much a surface LRT like Finch West costs ($2.5 bil is the quoted cost for Finch West. The estimate for the Eglinton Crosstown at present is $12 billion. SSE is $5.5 billion. There's no way the Ontario line, twice as long as the SSE, is only going to cost a paltry billion or two to construct.
The pandemic cut back every govt project by at least 2 years so it sounds about right