The Alberta government has awarded Mountain View Partners (MVP) as the company that will build the southwest portion of the Calgary ring road.
MVP will also design, partially finance and operate the newest portion of the highway. It will consist of 31 kilometres of six and eight-lane roadways, 49 bridges—including three river crossings and a roadway flyover—14 interchanges and a railway overpass.
The highway is expected to be open to traffic in 2021.
The company was in competition with two other contractors and ultimately MVP offered the lowest cost at $1.42 billion in 2016 dollars.
A selection process to decide who would ultimately work on the ring road began last summer.
READ MORE: Trudeau announces $582.9M to complete southwest ring road
In the agreement, the province has agreed to pay for 60 per cent of the project during the five-year construction phase. MVP will finance the remaining cost during the operating period of 30 years, meaning the project should be paid for in 35 years.
The total cost of the massive project is expected to be around $2.2 billion.
In the government’s 2016 budget, nearly $3 billion was announced for ring roads in both Edmonton and Calgary. About $2.1 billion was allocated for the southwest Calgary ring road. The government says the successful bid from MVP means the project is $700 million under budget.
Minister of Transportation Brian Mason said the new partnership will allow the project to take shape.
“… full construction of the southwest Calgary ring road is ready to begin, creating good family-supporting jobs.”
READ MORE: Funding for ring road announced in 2015 provincial budget
WATCH BELOW: Preliminary work began in the summer of 2016 and major construction will start in the fall
The southwest and west portions are the two remaining sections to complete of the Calgary ring road, more commonly known as Stoney Trail.