'Ready to go': City transportation manager defends moving forward on Green Line

The city's transportation manager says he will recommend council move forward with the Green Line project next week despite critics' calls to delay it.

City council is expected to vote on the future of the $4.9-billion light-rail transit project on Monday.

Transportation manager Michael Thompson told the Calgary Eyeopener he believes there's a need to evaluate how the project is built downtown to ensure it's beneficial for Calgarians in years to come.

"At the same time, the part south of the Elbow River is really ready to go," he said.

The first phase of the project involves building a 20-kilometre stretch between 16th Avenue N. in Crescent Heights to 126th Avenue S.E., crossing the Bow River on a bridge and going under downtown.

But planning the four kilometres of the line from 16th Avenue to the Elbow River have proven more difficult than expected.

Thompson said the city has found a number of issues that are driving the tunnel seven storeys deep underground.

"We thought that really doesn't meet the vision that we had originally established for Calgarians, so we want to take some time to step back and go and talk to Calgarians about what that looks like before moving forward with that part," he said.

Critics want to pause project

Critics have raised concerns that going ahead with parts of the project before the Green Line is entirely laid out will incur additional costs.

Coun. Evan Woolley of Ward 8 tabled an urgent notice of motion earlier this month to direct administration to pause work on the project to do a review of possible alignment changes and escalating cost projections.

Last week, Premier Jason Kenney said he was in favour of hitting the brakes on the project until a more thorough review is complete.

Meanwhile, Mayor Naheed Nenshi has voiced opposition to any significant delays, as has Conservative MP Michelle Rempel, a former federal caucus colleague of Kenney's.

80% of project south of Elbow River ready

The city has been planning designs, purchasing land and moving utilities and landfills in preparation for construction for a few years now, Thompson said.

He said about 80 per cent of the project south of the Elbow River is ready to start.

"We have really been doing our due diligence. We've been getting out there, finding out what's underground, looking at the utilities and understanding the risks," Thompson added.

The transportation manager said there will be time to evaluate the downtown section while the contract process, which will take a year prior to shovels hitting the ground, begins for the southeast part of the line.

In doing that, the line will be on track to open by the end of 2026, Thompson said.

Staff turnover

In addition to the controversy about the line's timeline, the project has also seen staff changes.

But Thompson defended the staff turnover, citing the lengthy time span of the project.

Green Line planning started in 2012 and isn't expected to be complete until the end of 2026 — a span of about 15 years.

As for future expansion, he said the city's plan has always been to add to the 20-kilometres in both directions.

North Point, beyond 144th Avenue N., is the ultimate goal in the north end while Seton is the goal in the south — but those aspirations will require more funding, he said.

"What we've proposed is very similar to how Calgary successfully built our LRT system to date," Thompson said. "We didn't build it all in one shot. We built it in stages."

City council approved a full, 46-kilometre line with 28 stations two years ago, but construction on the project is not slated to begin until 2022 due to technical delays.

The opening of the project could be delayed until 2027 due to unrelated contract changes.

With files from Scott Dippel and the Calgary Eyeopener.