TTC could consider lawsuit if Spadina subway extension project delayed again

Insidetoronto.com
April 30, 2014
By Rahul Gupta

The TTC is taking steps to minimize the impact of possible further delays to the completion of the Toronto York Spadina Subway Extension (TYSSE).

At Wednesday’s TTC board meeting CEO Andy Byford said the transit commission would seek to recover losses from a delay to the 8.6 kilometre six-stop extension from Downsview Station. Initially supposed to be completed in 2015, the project was postponed to 2016 following a fatal construction accident at a station site on the grounds of York University.

Now, the TTC is concerned about the performance of a contractor working at the Pioneer Village Station, formerly known as Steeles West. If there’s another delay, Byford said the transit commission would consider litigation.

“I think it’s standard practice in any big construction job that if delays occur it is standard practice to determine the liability for those claims and to pursue them in a commercial environment in a normal way that any big project would do,” he told reporters following the meeting.

Work at the Steeles West site has long been a concern for the TTC. In his monthly CEO report tracking TTC performance, Byford noted, “less than expected contractor performance among other issues” in regards to the TYSSE work.

The TTC board also approved to extend the “upset limit” on a contract with Stantec Consulting Services Limited by $9 million raising the maximum amount the TTC would have to pay in the case of a delay to the company to over $39,000,000.

Stantec is responsible for supplementing TTC staff in project planning and its contact runs out in December of 2016. It is receiving $355,000 per month according to TTC staff over the life of the contract.

TTC spokesperson Brad Ross said the move to raise the upset limit wouldn’t cost the TTC any additional money but would act as a “trigger” in the eventuality board and city council approval is required for more money.

If you know you’re going to go over the allotted contract amount, you need to come back to the board for the authority to exceed that limit,” Ross explained. “That could mean needing more money or extending the contract, those kinds of things.”

The $2.6 billion Spadina subway extension was funded by all levels of government and is expected to begin service in late 2016.