Union Subway Station: Second Platform and Concourse Improvements

Developer: Toronto Transit Commission, Waterfront Toronto
Architect: Arcadis
  
Address: Front Street & Bay Street, Toronto
Category: Transit
Status: CompleteCompletion: 2015
Height: ? ft / ? mStoreys: ? storeys
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Toronto Union Subway Station: Second Platform and Concourse Improvements | ?m | ?s | TTC | Arcadis

The TTC have moved very fast on readvertising this! It closes on 20 October

UNION STATION SECOND PLATFORM & CONCOURSE IMPROVEMENTS


TENDER NO. T11PI10901, CONTRACT NO. U2-7


Date Posted:
Friday, October 8, 2010



Proposal Close Date:
2:00 p.m., Wednesday, October 20, 2010.



Addenda Issued to Date:
None



Description of the Work:
NOTE: This notice is to advise potential subcontractors only of the availability of the tender documents. It should be noted that only tenders submitted by the pre-qualified Tenderers (Black & MacDonald Limited, EllisDon Corporation, Kenaidan Contracting Ltd. and Vanbots, a Division of Carillion Construction Inc.) will be accepted by the Commission. The work of this contract consists of all labour, equipment and material to rehabilitate the concourse, platform and construct a second platform and automatic entrance to the existing Union Subway Station. It also includes several items of work on behalf of the City of Toronto.

NOTE: Only CDs of the Specifications and Drawings are available for pick-up.
 
This is interesting... the bids have just been posted - again, only 2 of 4 companies bid, and again EllisDon is low bidder - but their bid was $9 M HIGHER than the previous tender. $161,550,000.00
This retendering strategy obviously did not work out as planned.
 
I'd suspect then, that the price is more a function of the lost opportunity cost of the bidder than the construction method.

Meanwhile lots of large projects are starting, so there is less contractor availability and more demand. Makes you wonder how all those large tenders for the Spadian extension are going to land. They'd have been better off just biting the bullet in the first place.
 
Now that it's too expensive, Union will be converted to LRT - including most of the Yonge line - to save money by the all knowing TTC.

Steve Munro says it's good, so obviously it would be a great idea!
 
Filip said:
Now that it's too expensive, Union will be converted to LRT - including most of the Yonge line - to save money by the all knowing TTC.

Steve Munro says it's good, so obviously it would be a great idea!
Click to expand...

I don't see how one can compare LRT on the Transit City routes to LRT on the Yonge line. Judging by the logic of your post though it's obviously not an issue for you though.
 
Swarley said:
I don't see how one can compare LRT on the Transit City routes to LRT on the Yonge line. Judging by the logic of your post though it's obviously not an issue for you though.
Click to expand...
What are you talking about? I'm simply following the TTC's logic. Too expensive? No credit? NO PROBLEM! LRT... TADA!!!
 
Filip said:
What are you talking about? I'm simply following the TTC's logic. Too expensive? No credit? NO PROBLEM! LRT... TADA!!!
Click to expand...

You see they have this chart they like to show. It has Bus, LRT, and Subway on it with ranges of ridership the mode of transportation can support. They draw a line on it at the expected passenger loads and it would show that certain modes are possible or not possible to meet that load. The Yonge subway is full and the loads are known. They draw the line on the chart and voila... subway it is. TADA!!
 
Swarley said:
This is interesting... the bids have just been posted - again, only 2 of 4 companies bid, and again EllisDon is low bidder - but their bid was $9 M HIGHER than the previous tender. $161,550,000.00
This retendering strategy obviously did not work out as planned.
Click to expand...

Why did the price go up?
 
First Bid:
ELLISDON CIVIL LTD. $152,980,000.00
KENAIDAN CONTRACTING LTD. $181,377,000.00

Second Bid:
ELLISDON CORPORATION $161,550,000.00
KENAIDAN CONTRACTING LTD. $181,377,000.00

Likely Ellis Don suspected that they had some room to play with since Kenaidan was almost 20% higher than before. With a 20% gap in the prices did the city actually think there would be pressure on Ellis Don to go lower? Would greater surface disruption really save more than 20%? With Kenaidan not budging it seems the TTC seriously overestimated the difference in price a different construction method would have.
 
There is a serious shortage of skilled labour in the GTA, not to mention good engineers. With all of the condo construction we're seeing, not to mention a handful of major infrastructure projects, results like this one will become much more common. Maybe we should start trucking in construction workers from the US!
 
This from the Waterfront Toront's CEO Report to their 20 October Board is on the WT website:

Union Station Second Platform

Following a detailed review of the bids received for the construction of the Union Station Second Platform, the TTC has informed WT that it intends to cancel and re-issue the tender documents. Concurrently, the Contribution Agreement that increases the funding limit and extends the required completion date for this project, has been reviewed and approved by the City and Provincial Waterfront Secretariats and has been submitted to the Mayor and Minister for execution. The TTC released the retender documents in early October and expects to receive revised bids and award the contract prior to year end.
 
We will have to wait and see if anything actually gets signed as a result of "the Contribution Agreement that increases the funding limit and extends the required completion date for this project". I'm not going to get my hopes up because it was back in 2001 when I remember going to an open house in the location where the Starbucks in the RBC building now sits. It was one of the big 4 kick-off projects for the starting the waterfront revitalization and part of the bid to lure the 2008 Olympics. Here it is two years after 2008 and we haven't signed a contract to build this thing yet.
 
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