Contractor to build Surrey-Langley SkyTrain's guideway selected

Contractor to build Surrey-Langley SkyTrain's elevated guideway selected

Gantry crane used for the construction of the elevated guideway of the SkyTrain Millennium Line's Evergreen Extension. (Government of BC)

One of the three major consortiums that will build the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain extension of the Expo Line has been selected by the provincial government.

This consortium will specifically be tasked with the responsibility to design, build, and interim finance the extension’s elevated guideway spanning 16 km between the existing King George Station and Langley City Centre, including associated roadworks along Fraser Highway and utilities and some active transportation components.

The consortium for this major elevated guideway contract is called SkyLink Guideway Partners, which is a team comprised of Dragados Canada, Ledcor Investments, Ledcor Mining, and SYSTRA International Bridge Technologies.

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SkyLink Guideway Partners is now the preferred proponent, with the provincial government now entering final contract negotiations with the consortium. This team will now begin additional early works and site preparation, such as geotechnical investigations, locating utilities, and clearing vegetation. This adds to the previous early works and site preparation conducted in recent years, including the widening of Fraser Highway within Green Timbers Urban Forest to create space for the elevated guideway.

Major construction work on this SkyTrain extension will officially commence later in 2024. The project is scheduled for completion and opening in late 2028.

Dragados is involved in some of Canada’s largest public transit projects, including the 2019-opened Confederation Line in Ottawa and the Eglinton Crosstown LRT in Toronto, which have experienced issues relating to operations and construction, respectively.

Currently, the single consortium building SkyTrain’s Millennium Line Broadway Extension to Arbutus is led by Acciona Infrastructure Canada, which was unsuccessful with its bid to become the elevated guideway contractor for the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain project. Acciona is also building the new Pattullo Bridge and Site C hydroelectric dam and was previously the contractor for the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant until their dismissal in 2021.

The preferred consortiums have yet to be identified for the remaining two major contracts to build the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain. This includes a contract to build the eight new stations and associated supporting infrastructure, such as bus exchanges, and a contract for the track, electrical, and automated train control work.

The provincial government first initiated the procurement process in 2022, and then it shortlisted the interested bidders and invited them to proceed into the Request For Proposal (RFP) stage in 2023.

It was previously estimated the value of the three separate major contracts would carry a value of $1.1 billion for the elevated guideway, $475 million for the eight new stations, and $700 million for the track work — a combined total contract value of nearly $2.3 billion. The entire project carries a cost of $4 billion, which includes non-contractor costs such as land and property acquisitions, geotechnical testing, and pre-design and planning work.

The real contract value for SkyLink Guideway Partners has yet to be made public.

Finalized in 2020, the contract value to the consortium led by Acciona and Italian tunnelling company Ghella to design, build, and interim finance the Millennium Line Broadway Extension was $1.73 billion. This subway carries a total project cost of $2.83 billion.

Typically, SkyTrain extension projects — such as the Evergreen Extension and Broadway Extension — are awarded to a single contractor or consortium, which then subcontracts the various project components to other companies. However, for Surrey-Langley SkyTrain, the provincial government suggests splitting up the work into multiple major contracts could increase bid competition and enable more local companies to bid on different elements of the project. Under the typical large single-contract model, local companies may not have the capacity to handle the entire multibillion-dollar project.

The provincial government notes formal contract award announcements are expected in the coming months.

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