Grand River Transit

[the_conestoga_guy]

I'm struggling to turn up the old costing document, but I believe the skepticism surrounding the $4.5B cost came from some conservative inflation projections at the time. The cost also included a 20% contingency, so it doesn't necessarily reflect the true estimated cost of the project.

Regarding the cost of the project, I understand that the single largest capital expense is the new bridge over the Grand River. While looking through old documents, the 2011 council-endorsed route caught my eye (page 23 in the link). Specifically, the LRT would leave Fairway station and twin King St along the existing rail alignment before diverting away from its present Sportsworld route.

Considering the Freeport Bridge has just been shut down to large vehicles because it is so desperately in need of remediation, it would have been nice if it could have been replaced with a new bridge that included space for rail. The LRT could then just continue down King to Sportsworld and resume the newer alignment.

https://ehq-production-canada.s3.ca-cent...MAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIA4KKNQAKIOR7VAOP4%2F20240417%2Fca-central-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20240417T152641Z&X-Amz-Expires=300&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=53f03a55e95b926f6492a87b70c1eec924464ad2f51ced0f863a496929c33d1b