A consortium led by SNC-Lavalin has been awarded the $889-million contract to design, build and finance the Evergreen Line SkyTrain extension to Coquitlam.
The province picked bidding group EGRT Construction, which is made up of SNC Lavalin plus eight partners or subsidiaries, including Graham Building Services, International Bridge Technologies Inc. and Jacobs Associates Canada.
SNC has been under a year-long cloud following allegations of corruption in its dealings with foreign governments to secure overseas contracts. Four former officials face bribery charges and the company itself remains under investigation as well.
Major construction is slated to begin in February but details of exactly where it will start have not been released.
The job entails building the 11-kilometre line from Lougheed Town Centre in Burnaby through Port Moody to Coquitlam, with a combination of elevated and at-grade guideway and a two-kilometre bored tunnel.
Lougheed Town Centre Station will also be expanded and six new stations will be built, with provision for two potential future stations.
A vehicle storage building and facilities for integrating transit as well as pedestrian, vehicle and bicycle access will also be built.
The full price of the rapid transit project is $1.4-billion. The other costs being paid by the province, in addition to the contract with EGRT, include $90 million for 28 Bombardier-built SkyTrain cars, land acquisition costs and $30 million in preparatory construction work.
The region's newest rapid transit line is to open in summer 2016.
SNC's group was picked as the preferred proponent last fall out of a short list of three qualified bidding groups. The others were EL Partners and Kiewit/Flatiron Evergreen Line.
A community relations team is to work with residents, businesses, motorists and others to provide traffic pattern changes or delays and other project information in different languages.
