Happy to announce the construction tender for the King Liberty Pedestrian Cycling Bridge was awarded earlier this week. The rendering process took longer than expected because the companies that bid on the contract requested more time to get their bids submitted. But now that it has been awarded, expect a construction notice to circulate shortly as work could start quickly.
Q: Wasn’t this announced 4 years ago? How did it take this long to render bids on the project?
A: We confirmed the funding four years ago (while it was in the plan, there was no money planned for ti), but once funding was assigned, it wasn't scheduled in the capital budget. We have had several technical and intergovernmental (Metrolinx) that have delayed issuing the tender.
Q: If I announced I was tendered for a project years after expectation I would be fired. Not congratulated.
A: I appreciate the frustration with the delay, there are fewer files that have needed as much supervision as this project, but respectfully, the delays have not been entirely caused by the city. First, there was no funding allocated to the construction of the project until 2014 when, after fighting for 4 years for the money, it was finally included in the future capital budget for construction in 2016-2017. But delays with Metrolinx schedule to complete the overpass pass, then with city engineering staff about the feasibility of the technical aspects of the design, and more recently because of construction and maintenance agreements with Metrolinx, pushed it back. These steps are all critical to happen in sequence after funding was assigned as we don't want to pay for work for the project that does not have resources to complete it. Even the tender was delayed 2 months at the request of the bidding contractors to get their bids together (only two contractors completed bids, so we really didn['t have a choice). I know it is long overdue and I wish that when Liberty Village was originally designed and buildings started getting built, that these infrastructure pieces were included. but we can't turn back time and I wasn't there so can't defend the city's position. I am happy to say that our community activism has now got another almost $100M to build the new Liberty east West Street, another piece that should have been built already.
Q: So, when does the east west street construction start?
A: We need to expropriate land from a couple parking lots from Atlantic to Dufferin. This is a legal proceeding and takes a long time. $90 million to construct road is scheduled from 2020-2022. This money is new into the capital budget, I was only added this year.
