Surrey-Langley SkyTrain cost balloons by 50% to $6 billion

Surrey-Langley SkyTrain construction cost balloons by 50% to $6 billion

June 2024 preliminary concept: Clayton Station on Surrey-Langley SkyTrain; not the final design. (Government of BC)

The cost to build the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain extension has grown by 50% to $5.996 billion.

The Government of British Columbia confirmed today the newly updated cost of the project, which represents a 50% increase from the previous estimate of $3.94 billion.

This updated construction cost, representing an increase of about $2 billion, follows the provincial government’s finalization of the three separate major construction contracts for the project over the past few months.

Major construction work on the project is still scheduled to begin before the end of 2024.

However, the project is now expected to reach completion and open in late 2029 instead of late 2028.

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This is a project to seamlessly extend the Expo Line by 16 km along Fraser Highway from the existing King George Station in Surrey City Centre to Langley City Centre. The entire extension will be on an elevated guideway, and it will add eight stations to TransLink’s regional SkyTrain network.

With procurement for contractors beginning in Spring 2022, the BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure separated the project’s construction process into three separate contracts. This moved away from the previous practice of selecting one contractor to be responsible for building all project components, such as the Millennium Line’s Broadway and Evergreen extensions, the new replacement Pattullo Bridge, and the Canada Line.

At the time, the Ministry indicated that splitting the project into three smaller contracts would lead to more competitive bid submissions and encourage more local small companies to submit proposals.

green timbers station surrey langley skytrain 2024

June 2024 preliminary concept: Green Timbers Station on Surrey-Langley SkyTrain; not the final design. (Government of BC)

langley city centre station surrey langley skytrain 2024

June 2024 preliminary concept: Langley City Centre Station on Surrey-Langley SkyTrain; not the final design. (Government of BC)

At the outset of the bidding processes, it was previously estimated that the three separate contracts would have a combined contract value of nearly $2.3 billion: $1.1 billion for the elevated guideway contract, $475 million for the contract of eight new stations, various bus exchanges, and tail track, and $700 million for the track work contract. The project’s business case, created before the March 2022 start date of the global inflationary trend in market prices, previously estimated the project’s cost at $4 billion, which includes $2.3 billion for the value of the contracts and $1.7 billion for the non-contractor costs, such as land and property acquisitions, geotechnical testing, pre-design and planning work, and other costs incurred by the government.

Immediately after the provincial government updated the project today, Aecon Group announced that its South Fraser Station Partners consortium, selected to fulfill the station construction contract, holds a contract value of $928 million. This represents an almost 100% increase over the provincial government’s earlier $475 million estimate made before March 2022.

Other than Aecon Group, South Fraser Station Partners includes Acciona Infrastructure (the same builder of SkyTrain’s Broadway Extension and the new Pattullo Bridge), Pomerleau, and AECOM Constructors. Francl Architecture and Perkins&Will will again reprise their roles as the architectural design firms for the region’s newest SkyTrain stations, collaboratively working with AECOM’s architectural design division.

The provincial government selected SkyLink Guideway Partners, a consortium that includes Dragados Canada, Ledcor, and SYSTRA International Bridge Technologies, to build the 16-km-long elevated guideway.

As well, the consortium called Transit Integrators BC — comprised of AtkinsRéalis (previously known as SNC Lavalin) and Western Pacific Enterprises — will install the tracks, electrical systems, and automated train control.

hillcrest 184 street station surrey langley skytrain 2024

June 2024 preliminary concept: Hillcrest-184 Street Station on Surrey-Langley SkyTrain; not the final design. (Government of BC)

152 street station surrey langley skytrain 2024

June 2024 preliminary concept: 152 Street Station on Surrey-Langley SkyTrain; not the final design. (Government of BC)

The newly updated $6 billion cost figure for the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain does not include the cost of building the 37-acre SkyTrain operations and maintenance centre (OMC5) in North Cloverdale, with notices of future procurement opportunities indicating OMC5 now carries a cost in the range of over $1 billion. OMC5 is being pursued as a separate project, with a possible anticipated completion date at the end of this decade, coinciding with the Surrey-Langley extension’s opening.

OMC5 will serve both the Surrey-Langley extension and the long-term growth needs of the Expo and Millennium lines.

“Like all public- and private-sector infrastructure projects, the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain project is being delivered during a time of significant market challenges in British Columbia, across Canada and around the world,” stated the Ministry today.

The updated project cost is “in response to market conditions, including rising inflation costs and key commodity escalation, supply-chain pressures and labour-market challenges. This has resulted in higher price proposals from contractors.”

This continues an ongoing pattern of recent skyrocketing costs for major infrastructure projects across BC for the provincial, regional, and municipal governments, including other transportation infrastructure projects, sewage treatment plants, and major hospitals.

On Wednesday, the provincial government also announced the eight-km-long widening project of Highway 1 between the Mount Lehman Road interchange to the Highway 11 (Sumas Way) interchange within Abbotsford will cost $2.65 billion. This brings the future 21-km-long Highway 1 widening between the 264th Street interchange in Langley Township to Highway 11 in Abbotsford to $5 billion. Such costs, including land acquisition, represent an exponential increase of many multitudes compared to the previous Highway 1 widening projects to the west in Surrey and elsewhere in Langley Township.

Both of the Ministry’s ongoing construction transportation infrastructure projects within Metro Vancouver also face further delays. In May 2024, the Ministry announced the Millennium Line’s Broadway Extension to Arbutus will open in Fall 2027 (instead of early 2026), and the new replacement Pattullo Bridge will open in Fall 2025 (instead of late 2024). Although there are delays and stated cost pressures, the official project costs for both the Broadway Extension and the new Pattullo Bridge remain unchanged at $2.8 billion and $1.4 billion, respectively.

The provincial government has yet to provide an updated cost on the new replacement eight-lane George Massey Tunnel project, which was last estimated at $4.15 billion in 2020/2021 and is not expected to begin construction until 2026 for a 2030 opening. In July 2024, the Ministry selected an international consortium to design and build the project, which includes the builder of the historic Channel Tunnel between the United Kingdom and France.

17916 fraser highway surrey skytrain omc5 operations and maintenance centre

Site of SkyTrain’s future OMC5 at 17916 Fraser Highway, Surrey, along the future Surrey-Langley SkyTrain extension of the Expo Line. (Government of BC/Daily Hive)

Upon opening in 2029, the Expo Line extension will have a travel time of 22 minutes between King George Station and Langley City Centre Station, while the travel time between Waterfront Station in downtown Vancouver and Langley City Centre Station will be about 62 minutes.

By 2029, the entire SkyTrain network will be over 100 km long with the Millennium Line and Expo Line extensions combined. The Broadway and Surrey-Langley extensions are also crucial for supporting high-density, transit-oriented development to help address housing affordability and supply issues and catalyze economic growth.

“The populations of Surrey, Langley and other communities across Metro Vancouver are growing quickly, and we are committed to building infrastructure to meet these needs,” said Rob Fleming, BC Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, in a statement today.

“This project will transform how people get around, helping create a more affordable, livable and greener future for people in the region.”

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