The board overseeing construction of Calgary’s Green Line LRT says it will build the portion that runs from the southeast to downtown all at once rather than dividing it into segments. 

“This will connect the southeast to downtown and into the existing Red and Blue lines within the first phase,” said Wendy Tynan, manager of stakeholder relations for the Green Line. 

“If escalation costs and other risks do not materialise in phase one, the board will proceed with building from Eau Claire to 16th Avenue.”

The previous plan called for the first phase to be divided into three segments with separate contracts for construction. The first segment would stretch from Shepard in the southeast to Inglewood/Ramsay. Construction on that phase was supposed to start this summer. 

The city argued dividing the contracts for each segment would save money and increase the number of companies able to submit bids — including local companies. 

However, provincial transportation Minister Ric McIver referred to the plan as a “train line to nowhere” because the connection to downtown was its own segment. 

Mayor Naheed Nenshi said he didn’t want to dwell on the past but rather focus on the fact the project is clearing another hurdle. 

“The city had thought that it would be better to break this up into smaller pieces in order to have more competition on each one of these projects and to enable smaller and local companies to be involved more in the procurement,” he said on Wednesday.

“However, that did lead to a little bit of what we call ‘completion risk,’ just making sure that the various pieces work together.”

Keep reading on Global News

Check out more news below: