The Evergreen Line Farce Continues
The Evergreen Line saga continues, with tenders being called for construction. The sad fact is, the winning bidder will have to cut corners to if is to secure the winning bid, just like what SNC Lavalin did when it won the Canada Line bid, by changing from bored tunnel to cut-and-cover tunnel construction and not paying compensation to affected businesses and merchants along the metro route.
As SkyTrain is the transit mantra for the BC Liberal Party, the BC NDP and the Federal Conservatives, there will be no end in sight for hugely over engineered light-metro planning in the Vancouver Metro Region. SkyTrain has been and always will be a political pork barrel where huge sums of taxpayers money are spent on short lengths of metro lines, while at the same time time enriching friendsAi?? and cronies of the government. Just follow the money folks.
The regional rapid transit farce continues!
Three companies to vie for lucrative Evergreen Line contract
Ai??By FRANK LUBA, The ProvinceThe long-awaited Evergreen Line is another step closer to reality.
Photograph by: Nick Procaylo, PNG files
A request for proposals to build the Evergreen Line rapid transit project was finally issued Wednesday to the three qualified bidders on the $1.4 billion extension of SkyTrain to Coquitlam.
Consortiums EL Partners, Kiewit/Flatiron Evergreen Line and SNC-Lavalin Inc. will bid to design, build and finance the line. Their technical submissions are due in April next year, with financial submissions due shortly afterward.
The winner will be selected in the summer of 2012, with the line to open in 2016,
That opening is delayed from previous forecasts for the line, which had been dubbed the ai???Neverseen Lineai??? for all its financing woes.
Evergreen had been the priority for TransLink and Metro Vancouver until Vancouver was awarded the 2010 Winter Olympics and the province began pushing for construction of the RAV Line, which had been ranked behind Evergreen regionally.
RAV became the Canada Line to the Vancouver International Airport and was built, albeit with much controversy over construction.
Evergreen languished on the sidelines because TransLink was not able to come up with its $400 million share of the project until earlier this year when gas taxes were increased and property taxes hiked.
