The city must swallow the costs of two massive interchanges by 2014, pay for extra land and agree to liability and delay concessions to get the Calgary Airport Authority to allow the airport tunnel project to go ahead, council was told Friday.
City manager Owen Tobert publicly laid out the daunting list of demands that airport leaders still have after months of negotiations. Those conditions would force the city to spend far more than the $295 million council has approved for the tunnel, although Tobert refused spell out those financial consequences in public.
With the province refusing a last-minute plea for special financial assistance, it’s unclear how Mayor Naheed Nenshi and council can come up with the additional dollars, since many civic funds have been drained of available money for this costly east-west road link.
It’s very possible that council will vote to kill the project at Friday’s special meeting. Its self-imposed negotiation deadline is Tuesday.
Tobert told council that the airport is concerned that the tunnel’s extension of Airport Trail will create a heavy east-west corridor that will fail on “Day 1″ without interchanges at Barlow Trail and 19th Street N.E. The city strongly disagrees with the airport’s transportation figures that predict such extreme congestion.
He also said that concerns the tunnel could potentially cause damage to airplanes or the new runway above it have led to an airport contract proposal with “scary language” like “unlimited and undefined liability.”
Council will discuss whether or how to continue negotiations in a closed-door debate this afternoon.
Calgary Herald
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