Vaughan subway project suffers another setback, politicos weigh in

Nov. 7, 2014
YorkRegion.com
By Adam Martin-Robbins

The Spadina subway extension to Vaughan is in serious jeopardy of being delayed, once again, according to the head of the transit agency overseeing the project.

TTC CEO Andy Byford said this week the anticipated opening date of fall 2016 appears to be “at significant risk.”

If the opening date is pushed back, it will be the second time the $2.5-billion project has been delayed.

The six-stop subway extension from Downsview Station to Vaughan Metropolitan Centre was originally supposed to up and running by 2015. But in late 2012, the TTC said that wouldn’t happen until the fall of 2016.

The subway extension into York Region has suffered setbacks almost since work began in 2010.

Subway construction started 16 months late due to funding issues and the schedule was never adjusted to account for that, said Byford.

Other difficulties ranged from an unusually harsh winter last year to tunnelling issues under York University.

In 2011, 24-year-old construction worker Kyle Knox was killed at the York University site, and the Ontario Ministry of Labour investigation suspended some work there into 2012.

Three stations - Pioneer Village, York and Vaughan Metropolitan Centre - have been particularly problematic.

Last year, TTC officials admitted there were issues with Walsh Construction, which has the $170-million contract to build the Pioneer Village Station.

Byford said the TTC has since been working with Walsh and its other contractors to recover the lost time. But the contractors are having difficulty with sub-contractors, who want a premium to expedite the necessary work.

The subway tunnelling is complete, most of the concrete has been poured and the base structures are in place. There is still plenty of work to be done installing track, signalling, power and automatic train control and testing the trains.

“Although late fall 2016 seems a long way away, it isn’t,” said Byford.

Pioneer Village is particularly critical in completing the project, or at least opening some stations.

But temporary piles that support the structure being built around them are standing in the middle of the track area. There’s no way to run trains up the line as long as they are there.

Whether those can be removed earlier is one idea Byford hopes to explore with a team of international experts he is recruiting to study how the schedule could be expedited.

That panel is expected to be on site this month.

“Are there things we can safely and legitimately claw back to make up lost time? No option is being left off the table,” he said.

Byford would not speculate on the length of another potential delay. He said he hopes to know more once the expert panel has looked at the schedule and remaining work.

“If the schedule has to change, what we cannot do is keep announcing dates and keep missing them,” he said.

Traffic congestion ranked among voters top concerns in last week’s municipal election and Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua has touted the subway as a key part addressing the issue.

“It is disappointing to hear the report that the completion of the subway is not on schedule,” he said in an email to The Citizen Wednesday. “But I have taken note of the fact that outside experts have been sought to avoid and address delays.”

Bevilacqua went on to say that “any revision to the completion date for the Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension will not significantly impact the overall development of the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre,” the city’s emerging downtown core in the Hwy. 7 and Jane Street area.

Transportation Minister and Vaughan MPP Steven Del Duca echoed the mayor’s sentiments.

“It’s always disappointing to read or to learn that there may be any delays in a project that’s of such importance to the people of Vaughan and the people of York Region,” he said. “The province is contributing $870 million to this project and I’ve said this repeatedly, it’s a very important project, it needs to be delivered and the people of York Region and the provincial government have an expectation that it will be delivered according to the schedule and on budget.”

Del Duca said he spoke to Byford Wednesday and he committed to getting back to the minister with “more specifics around the challenges and how they may be dealt with".

The new subway stops are expected to generate an additional 30 million TTC trips annually by 2021.

The project is being funded by Ottawa, the province, Toronto and York Region.