Siemiatycki on Ontario Line P3s

Matti Siemiatycki outside against background of Toronto CN Tower
Professor Matti Siemiatycki, Geography and Planning, University of Toronto

UTTRI associated faculty Professor Matti Siemiatycki, Interim Director of the School of Cities, comments on the splitting of the Ontario Line project into three bid packages in “Ontario Starts Bid Process on Long-Gestating $8.5B Toronto P3 Subway,” Engineering News-Record, June 8, 2020.

Infrastructure Ontario announced the plan June 2, 2020 in a press release stating:

The Ontario Line is being delivered as three separate public-private partnership (P3) procurement contracts: one rolling stock, systems, operations and maintenance contract for the entire 15.5-kilometre line and two separate civil, stations and tunnel contracts – one for the southern segment and one for the northern segment of the line. The schedules for each contract will be aligned to allow for a single in-service date for the Ontario Line.

Creating three separate contracts of manageable size and acceptable risk will encourage competition and active participation from the market to support innovation and ensure that the right teams are in place to successfully deliver the line at the best value for taxpayers.

In the Engineering News-Record article, Siemiatycki points out several factors that make the decision a good one:

This project is hugely significant and is by far the biggest transit project in Ontario since the building of the first subway lines.

While the economic downturn and COVID-19 have reduced the capacity of major design-build firms to take on huge projects, there also has been growing industry caution about large and complicated P3s, he noted.

“The project is so big … that there wouldn’t be enough competition,” Siemiatycki says. “It would disqualify many bidders.”

Read the full article “Ontario Starts Bid Process on Long-Gestating $8.5B Toronto P3 Subway,” Engineering News-Record, June 8, 2020.


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