Toronto Spadina Subway Extension Emergency Exits | ?m | 1s | TTC | IBI Group

Cost of labour is not the main culprit responsible for Spadina's huge price tag...modifications to the Wilson yard, engineering, management, geotechnical stuff, permits, insurance, property acquisition, "miscellaneous," an enormous 26% contingency buffer ($500 million!!!), and 56 new subway cars account for almost half the extension's cost and can't really be built by migrant workers. Cost of labour is also not responsible for tunnelling through empty land or building elaborate stations that are much more expensive than equivalent stations built only a few years ago on the Sheppard line...Bessarion was built for only $36 million, with all the bells and whistles like elevators, multiple exits, a lavish mezzanine, a very deep platform, etc.
 
scarberiankhatru said:
Cost of labour is also not responsible for tunnelling through empty land or building elaborate stations that are much more expensive than equivalent stations built only a few years ago on the Sheppard line...Bessarion was built for only $36 million, with all the bells and whistles like elevators, multiple exits, a lavish mezzanine, a very deep platform, etc.
Click to expand...

That money has been set aside for elaborate stations sounds good. Downsview is a better station to compare to in terms of costs. It's also recent, and is at the level which all new station design should be at. Bessarion has its concrete walls after all.

The tunneling through empty lanes sounds like a waste though. It'll mean greater maintenance costs too.
 
The cost difference between tiling platform walls and not tiling platform walls is most certainly not tens of millions of dollars...

Downsview also has an excessively large mezzanine that should not be a model for future stations.
 
Sure, but the concrete was a cost saving option, and I was just saying that it shouldn't be repeated. Sheppard line stations also don't have the high ceiling at platform level, which contributes more to costs. Whatever it costs to build a station like Downsview with appropriately sized spaces like mezzanines should be spent. That's going to be more than Bessarion, but it shouldn't be that much more.
 
If you're excavating a huge cavern anyway, higher ceilings might be cheaper. Downsview's mezzanine is a substantial waste of space and money.
 
Media Advisory: LOVAT Inc. and TTC Announce Purchase of Tunnel Boring
Machine from Canada Line Consortium 'Transit City is now Subway City' says
TTC Chair
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - April 1, 2008) -

What: Delivery of LOVAT Inc.'s Tunnel Boring Machine to Toronto for
Commencement of Continuous Subway Construction Program ("Subway City")

When: Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Where: Downsview Subway Station (1035 Sheppard Avenue West, at William R. Allen Road)

Who will speak: Rt. Hon. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Premier Dalton McGuinty, Mayor David Miller (Toronto), Mayor Linda Jackson (Vaughan), Mayor Hazel McCallion (Mississauga), Mayor Dave Barrow (Richmond Hill), Rt. Hon. Minister Lawrence Cannon (Ministry of Transport)

The Toronto Transit Commission and Metrolinx will be announcing today the
purchase and delivery of the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) from the Canada
Line Consortium, following their completion of tunnel construction as part
of the Canada Line in Vancouver on March 14, 2008. This purchase has allowed the TTC and Metrolinx to change from previous plans for Light Rail Transit in Toronto ("Transit City") to complete subway construction ("Subway City").


"This opportunity only comes once in a lifetime, and it was great timing
that Vancouver finished their tunnel construction just as we are ramping up
planning for Transit City," says TTC Chair Adam Giambroney, "Transit City is
now Subway City!"

The Transit City plan called for the construction of seven new light rail
transit lines to span across the City of Toronto. The plan will now be
upgraded to be solely subway construction, including lines into Mississauga,
Vaughan, and Richmond Hill. Construction is to begin by 2009, with
completion of this ambitious subway expansion program by 2020.

For detailed media backgrounders on the LOVAT Inc. TBM, please visit:
http://www.lovat.com/ <http://www.ontariochc.ca/>

For detailed media backgrounders on the TTC Subway City Plan, please visit:
http://www.ttc.ca <http://www.ontariochc.ca/>

April Fool from another group and a good one.
 
from Daily Commercial News, looks like this is going forward...

Apr. 25, 2008

Management contract for Spadina subway extension in Toronto is worth $100 million

Subway project to last seven years

VINCE VERSACE

staff writer

Spadina Link Project Managers Team, a joint venture of Hatch Mott MacDonald, Delcan and MMM Group, has been awarded a $100 million project management services contract for the Spadina Subway Extension.

“The TTC is a very important client and we are very happy to be providing our services for this public transit project,†says Roger Toms of Delcan.

The $100 million contract spans seven years for the project which is expected to begin this year and end in 2015.

The Spadina Subway Extension has an estimated final cost of $2.63 billion and is the largest transit expansion project tackled by the Toronto Transit Commission [TTC] in 40 years.

The design aspect of the project is expected to take between two to three years and the construction, testing and commissioning will take from three to four years.

The Spadina Link Project Managers Team will be completely integrated with TTC staff and dedicated solely to this project.

“We have been seeing more agencies going this route of having people work from a dedicated project office,†notes Peter Overton of MMM Group.

The 8.6 km extension to the Spadina line will all be underground and result in six new stations. The six new stations will be Sheppard West, Finch West, York University, Steeles West, Highway 407 Transitway and Vaughan Corporate Centre.

The extension’s distance from the existing Downsview Station to Steeles West Station will be 6.2 km in Toronto. The extension will run another 2.4 km from Steeles West Station to Vaughan Corporate Centre in York Region.

Challenges for the project will vary from building subway tunnels under existing buildings to devising detour plans and impact plans for traffic on surrounding neighbourhoods when construction ramps up.

The project is funded by the federal, provincial, city and regional governments.
 
In this case, I think the Federal Government might have a point. A professional engineering firm might be better suited to design a major engineering project than members of the TTC staff. Same goes for a professional project management firm being more suited to project management. But I'm not surprised the TTC wants to keep it in-house.


Hey TTC, this'd be a great place for a subway some time soon
Posted: April 24, 2008, 6:38 PM by Rob Roberts
National Post

On the northwest corner of Jane Street and Highway 7, a creek gurgles through a field, surrounded by reeds and rushes. Nearby, a sign announces an application to change the zoning from agricultural to commercial, for the future Vaughan Corporate Centre.
A few paces east leans an old grey wooden farm building. Inside, rusted bicycles litter the dirt floor. Nestled in the rafters, peacefully in slumber today at lunch time, was a fat, contented raccoon.
The raccoon may sleep for a long time. This spot, the future heart of Vaughan, will, politicians promise, be the end-point for the 8.6-kilometre extension of the Toronto Transit Commission subway. But squabbles are slowing the project, and the 2014 completion now appears unlikely.
The delays puzzle me because, for once, they do not appear to be about money. There is lots of money. In March, 2006, the Government of Ontario handed the TTC $670-million to finance the subway extension. They later gave another $200-million. The feds pledged $697-million last year. Adam Giambrone, chair of the TTC, said this week -- putting a positive spin on things -- “The money is in a bank account, earning money.†But that hardly seems like a good place, when cars are backed up on clogged streets all over the region. Why aren’t they digging a subway?
“We got the money, so why has there been no construction?†Sandra Yeung Racco, a Vaughan city councillor and a member of the Spadina Subway Committee, which groups York region councillors, said today. “Why isn’t the shovel in the ground?â€
Environmental approval for the subway is complete, says Nicole Lippa-Gasparro, the spokeswoman for Jim Bradley, Ontario’s minister of transportation. She said the TTC did let a contract recently, to ensure it didn’t lose the money.
“A contract to relocate a storm sewer on Steeles Avenue was awarded in February,†she said. I asked her why the delay.
“The federal government has not flowed the full share of its funds and we hope this will be in the near future, so the work can begin,†she said.
To pay for six new subway stations from Downsview, through York University into Vaughan, the province and feds are each paying a third, with the City of Toronto kicking in $400-million and the region of York $300-million. But no one is building the thing.
I ate wonton soup and crabmeat on brown toast, $5.18, at sleepy Pete’s Donuts, Jane and Finch. The owner, who hails from China, noted the irony of Mayor David Miller going to China and being impressed with the pace of change there.
“In Shanghai they’re building a bullet train to Beijing, five hours,†he said. “David Miller said, ‘Oh, I learned a lot.’ In Toronto, in the last 20 years I only saw them building apartments downtown. We are slow. There is too much politics. Fighting, fighting.â€
Kevin, who owns an auto glass company, came in for coffee. Grease covered his hands. He said the subway can’t come soon enough. Now, most TTC buses on Jane stop at Steeles (Toronto’s northern border) and passengers must pay another fare to continue north. So people just walk. “Lots of people work here,†he said. “I see all these people walk up Jane Street from Steeles. I feel sorry for them.â€
Yesterday, Mr. Giambrone said the project can’t go ahead because the TTC wants to do the work in house, whereas Ottawa wants it to tender to the private sector. Catherine Loubier, spokeswoman for Lawrence Cannon, the federal transport minister, said today that this is not a hold-up. “Should Toronto wish to use in-house staff for design and project management, they are free to do it, and the federal governemnt will redirect its contribution to other parts of the project,†she said.
She said the feds have their chequebooks open to reimburse any subway costs up to $697-milion when they receive an invoice for any work that’s properly tendered. “They haven’t sent any invoices because they haven’t started the project,†she said.
Councillor Karen Stintz of Eglinton-Lawrence, a strong TTC supporter, says the TTC is dragging its heels because it simply doesn’t want to run a subway outside the City of Toronto. “They want to stay in their jurisdiction,†she said. The TTC did not return my call. They won’t be able to force everyone to pay a second fare in Vaughan, but they could simply charge fares by distance across the system, as other cities do.
Or maybe, the raccoon can sleep deeply for a long time to come.
 
Quelle surprise nothing has happened yet. Maybe all of us who argued against the extension into York Region will get our just desserts---at the expense of no subway at all.
 
That's exactly right, and that's why I've always been furious about transit activists who complain about major transit projects because they happen to think that they go too far. I mean, deal with it! Better more transit than less, let alone none at all. That's exactly what got the O-Train defeated. They extended it to Barrhaven in order to get a broad coalition of urban and suburban support, and then the ridiculous downtown transit geeks started fighting against it because "the latent demand hadn't built up sufficiently" or some other ridiculous excuse.

Once again with the health care advocate analogy. Can you imagine a health care advocate demanding a new hospital for their neighbourhood? Then, the government comes along and says we're going to build a new hospital, but twice as big as the one you're asking for so it can serve both your neighbourhood and its surrounding area. Then the health advocate turns around and starts complaining that it's not the project they wanted.

Anyway, I digress. I was just pointing out that the TTC is obstructing this because they refuse to hire a professional engineering firm to do the engineering. Even though...that makes a lot of sense.
 
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