Civic Works Committee approves $56M contracts for next 3 BRT phases

The next three phases of bus rapid transit (BRT) in London, Ont. are about to get started.

The Civic Works Committee approved three tender contracts during their meeting at City Hall Tuesday morning.

London’s Bre-Ex Construction won the bid for all three projects, which include the East London Link (Dundas Street), the Highbury Avenue section to Oxford Street, and the Clarks Bridge and Wellington Road project.

The totals for these projects are $9,277,302.47 for the East London Link along Dundas Street, $28,487,258.16 for Highbury Avenue, and $18,297,251.48 for the Clarks Road and Wellington Road phase.

“We're excited to be working with Bre-Ex,” said Jennie Dann, London’s director of construction and lead engineer on the BRT project. “They're a capable contractor who’s got a lot of history of doing successful big projects in the city and we're looking forward to working with them.”

With the large BRT projects, the city likes to tender them before the end of the year. The goal is to be first on the street to get a competitive market price.

A diagram of the BRT East Link along Dundas Street and the Highbury Avenue Link projects (Source: City of London)“I would note that all three of these came in slightly lower than the engineers' estimate,” said Kelly Scherr, deputy city manager of infrastructure.

City Coun. Susan Stevenson had concerns about construction impacting businesses along Dundas Street.

Dann said the city plans to ease the pain by keeping parts of the section open to traffic.

“Whenever possible we to try to keep traffic open and avoid foreclosures but when we do fully close, we can get it done a lot quicker,” said Dann. “By taking a little extra time, we're able to maintain access to businesses and residents throughout construction.”

She added they have a lot of prep work to do, but expects when the weather turns, they’ll begin immediately.

London, Ont.'s Bre-Ex Construction has been awarded the tender contract for the next three phases of the bus rapid transit project. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)“We're anticipating that you'll see some activity on Highbury first, but soon after, sometime in March you'll be able to see some activity on Dundas,” explained Dann. “We have some early environmental work to happen around Clarks Bridge so that we can get ready to do in-water work to widen the bridge when the fisheries window opens up July 1.”

The nearly $56 million involved in these three tendered contracts will still need to be approved by council next week.

Civic Works Committee Chair Anna Hopkins praised staff for their community engagement, and answering questions regarding challenges to residents and businesses.

“It's going to be exciting improving the way we move around the city,” said Hopkins. “Improving transit as well as dealing with the population growth. We need to have that infrastructure in place.”