Engineering companies awarded three big Ontario transportation projects

AECOM has been chosen as the lead design subconsultant for a joint venture that will design, build and finance part of the Air Rail Link to Toronto Pearson International Airport.

The much anticipated transportation project will provide a rail link between Union Station downtown and Toronto Pearson International Airport, approximately 30 kilometres to the northwest.

As lead designer for the consortium AirLinx Transit Partners, AECOM will provide architectural, structural, rail, utility relocation and other services for a 3-kilometre spur line and passenger station. The link will also connect Metrolinx’s GO Transit’s Kitchener line to Toronto Pearson Terminal 1.

The scope of services includes a new elevated guideway and track on high-level bridges and at-grade rail structures; relocating existing utilities; providing provisions for the future electrification of the ARL; and ensuring that construction on airport lands will not interrupt the Greater Toronto Airport Authority’s capital works program.

Metrolinx, the government agency, selected the AirLinx Transit Partners consortium for a joint venture contract worth $129 million.

Parsons Brinckerhoff has been named as the general engineering consultant to the Regional Municipality of Waterloo in Ontario for a major new transit program in the region. The program includes a 19-kilometre light rail transit system and a 17-kilometre bus rapid transit network through the Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo area. Parsons Brinckerhoff will help the regional government prepare its criteria and performance requirements for a private partner that will design, build, finance and operate the LRT. Parsons Brinckerhoff will also help with utility relocations and construction management.

A new 50/50 joint venture between SNC-Lavalin and Cintra Infraestructuras has been awarded the contract to design, build, finance and maintain the first phase of a project to extend the HIghway 407 toll highway that runs east-west across the Greater Toronto Area. The Highway 407 East phase 1 will stretch 22 kilometres from Brock Road in Pickering to Harmony Road in Oshawa. It also includes a 10-kilometre north-south connection from near Lake Ridge Road to Highway 401 and a connection to Highway 35. The design and build portion of the project is expected to take 3-1/2 years, to open by the end of 2015. The SNC-Lavalin-Cintra joint venture—known as 407 East Development Group General Partnership—will operate and maintain the highway for 30 years, but the province will own it and collect the tolls. The value of the contract is $1 billion in today’s dollars.