The contractor behind the Valley Line LRT extension to southeast Edmonton has discovered more cracks in the concrete piers along the line.
In an update posted to YouTube Thursday, TransEd CEO Ronald Joncas said further analysis of the piers that support the elevated guideway has uncovered cracks in 21 piers.
In early August, TransEd — the public-private partner building the extension — announced the line would not open this summer after cracks were found in 18 of the piers that support some of the elevated LRT tracks.
Since then, Joncas said significant work has occurred and the root cause analysis is nearly complete.
“The analysis thus far has confirmed that some of the impact on the piers is from the lateral thermal forces impacting 21 piers,” he said. “Our analysis continues until other factors are ruled out.
“We continue to make progress on this issue, and we remain in regular contact about our findings with our city partners. We have begun narrowing down various design solutions and over the coming weeks, we will begin to detail the design work.”
In a statement, Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said he shares Edmontonians’ profound disappointment in the delay of this project, and the discovery of issues with additional piers.
“The city will continue to hold TransEd accountable to repair the piers and pay for them as well. We expect TransEd to make this right and have the line open for safe and reliable service for Edmontonians as soon as possible.”
pihêsiwin Coun. Tim Cartmell said it’s not a total surprise that the problem has popped up in a few more places, but stressed that this is “entirely, completely a TransEd responsibility.”
“The contract calls for them to design and construct these structures and so they’re in the process of figuring out what’s wrong with them and how they’re going to fix them. And once they’re finished their determinations, I expect they’ll tell us what they found and what they expect to do,” he said.
Cartmell said now is not the time to pile on, adding he believes the conglomerate is made up of companies with very good reputations. He said now is the time to let TransEd figure out what the problem is, and how it intends to fix it.
“We need to balance this urgent desire for information on behalf of the city and our constituents with the need to be very clear, deliberate and right when they figure out what’s wrong and what the remedy will be,” Cartmell said.
“It’s only fair to give the parties responsible the opportunity to investigate.
“What’s the alternative? To take over a project that’s partly finished? There’s no legal or contractual or, frankly, practical other option. We are compelled to allow TransEd to figure out what’s wrong and how to fix it.”
James McKellar, a professor of real estate and infrastructure at Toronto’s Schulich School of Business, said he’s not surprised issues have come up given it’s a P3 project.
A P3 is an infrastructure project in which a private contractor provides some or all of the financing for the project, designs and builds the project and often provides operations and maintenance for the project. The private contractor also receives payments from government over an extended period of time, subject to deductions for failing to meet contractually defined performance standards.
“PPPs themselves … don’t always promise what they deliver,” McKellar said. “I think some governments see PPPs (P3s) as the magic bullet, solves everything, low cost. It doesn’t. You’re one of a long list of rapid transit projects in the same predicament.”
McKellar pointed to LRT projects in Ottawa and Toronto experiencing issues under the P3 model.
“In the case of transit, these are very complex systems and I think when government believe they go on a PPP they kind of wash their hands of all the problems but there’s so many uncertainties in doing this.”
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The professor couldn’t speak to Edmonton’s issues in particular, but said: “what you do find on the government side is lack of expertise and they see these PPPs as kind of alleviating them of responsibility. You really need a very high-level team on the public side. … You could say that sometimes governments don’t have the expertise to monitor these projects.
“On the side of the delivery mechanism, it turns out that sometimes they make promises they can’t keep. Sometimes they run into problems that are unknown.”
Joncas reassured Edmontonians that it is safe to walk and drive beneath the elevated tracks. He said train testing along the line continues, and asked people to be aware that if there’s a track, expect that there will be train on it.
“I remain committed to provide regular updates and I also want to remind everyone that the rains are still being tested along the various sections of the LRT lines,” Joncas said.
The 13-kilometre line connecting downtown with Mill Woods was originally slated to be ready for passengers in December 2020 before being delayed to the end of 2021. In October 2021, the opening was delayed again to the first quarter of 2022.
Then in December 2021, another delay was announced, this time to the summer of 2022. At the time, an exact opening date was not provided.
On June 22, the contractor again said it was still on track to open the line this summer, but an exact date was not released.
When announcing the cracked pier issue on Aug. 10, TransEd did not give an exact opening date, saying it will be provided closer to when the line will be ready for passengers.
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