Ontario Construction News staff writer
Rail Connect Partners, its joint venture with Bird Construction and AtkinsRéalis Group, has signed a project alliance agreement with Metrolinx to build the East Harbour Transit Hub, a new interchange station that is part of a broader transit-oriented community plan for Toronto.
“East Harbour Transit Hub is a generational project, transforming Toronto’s eastern-end waterfront and fulfilling a long-held ambition to expand the capacity of the city’s regional connectivity hubs,” said Ian L. Edwards, President and Chief Executive Officer, AtkinsRéalis. “We have a world-class project team with global and local expertise to ensure project delivery in full collaboration with our partners and client, as well as a commitment to quality and schedule performance.”
The scope of work includes completion of the rail corridor and bridge widening over an important thoroughfare, which will continue to be undertaken in planned phases to keep GO Transit services running with minimal impact.
The execution phase will also include the start of the station works and associated infrastructure and future road extension to facilitate a future streetcar connection.
AtkinsRéalis will provide project and construction management based on a best for project shared risk-capped, collaborative contract model. The company’s transit projects include the O-Train South Extension in Ottawa, the Réseau express métropolitain project in Montreal, the Evergreen and Canada Lines in Vancouver, as well as internationally renowned projects such as London’s Elizabeth Line, plus the Doha, Dubai, Riyad and Sydney metros.
“The East Harbour Transit Hub is one of the first major transit projects in Canada to use an alliance contracting model, which has been used in developed economies around the world for its risk and reward sharing benefits,” said Stéphanie Vaillancourt, President, Canada, AtkinsRéalis. “As Ontario embarks on the largest expansion of transit in North America, we look forward to continuing to work with Metrolinx to engineer a better future for the Greater Toronto region and its residents; a region that fuels almost half of Ontario’s GDP.”
East Harbour Transit Hub is designed to improve transportation choices in the City of Toronto for approximately 100,000 daily riders1. Serving the Riverdale, Riverside and Leslieville communities and located immediately east of the Don Valley Parkway and south of Eastern Avenue, it will connect to the Lakeshore East and Stouffville GO lines. Service levels planned as part of GO Expansion would see a GO train arriving as frequently as every five minutes. The hub will feature a station for the future Ontario Line and an extension to Broadview Ave will be built, which will enable a future TTC streetcar extension.
“The Metrolinx team is proud to work with partners in government and industry to deliver more transit options, reduce commute times, and ease congestion. East Harbour station will be one of the most important nodes on the region’s transit map. It will connect the Ontario Line to an expanded GO network in a way that will completely re-shape how we move through Toronto and beyond,” said Michael Lindsay, Interim President and CEO, Metrolinx.
In addition to the launch of its Beyond Zero Harm vision, which includes enhanced safety standards, processes, tools and training, the Alliance has also implemented all new initiatives endorsed by the Canadian Construction Safety Council, of which both AtkinsRéalis and Bird Construction are founding members, as part of a step change in the Canadian market.
