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Oct 14, 2024

Green Line goes ahead, with province throwing city off the train | Calgary Herald

The province always said the LRT line would never be built with a tunnel, and pulled its funding mainly on that point You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an

The province always said the LRT line would never be built with a tunnel, and pulled its funding mainly on that point

You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account.

There was a massive cave-in at city hall Thursday. The Green Line downtown tunnel collapsed forever.

The province always said the LRT line would never be built with a tunnel, and pulled its funding mainly on that point.

The city insisted a tunnel was vital for the proper functioning of the Green Line. With collective sobs, council proceeded to wind up the whole project (or pretend it did).

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Now, the Green Line is on track again, with a joint agreement to build the segment from 4th Street S.E. (the arena district) to Shepard.

It isn’t really a rebirth, because this vampire project simply can’t be allowed to die. Both parties know there’s no way to throw away $2.1 billion in sunk costs and windup expenses.

Mayor Jyoti Gondek agreed to keep building in a joint statement with provincial Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen.

The most significant part is: “This downtown alignment will be either at-grade or elevated, and will connect into the Red and Blue Lines, the new event centre and to southeast Calgary communities.”

No mention of a tunnel.

The province estimates an on-grade LRT line downtown will cost $100 million per kilometre; raised track would be $300 million; and tunnelling $1 billion.

The mayor agreed to the no-tunnel statement without giving council the chance to discuss. In that, it’s somewhat like Gondek tanking the original arena deal without taking the decision to a full meeting of councillors.

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Maybe she’s just being smart. Taking almost anything to council these days, even your lunch, doesn’t work out so well.

The council majority decided the Green Line was dead after hearing about the horror, the lost jobs, exploded contracts, reputation damage, possible nuclear winter, etc.

The technical people, as well as the Green Line board, really seemed to believe the project was dead. Those of us who bought that fiction were all duped. This was political stagecraft.

The section that will now be built has five stops more than the city’s latest plan for existing funds. Few Calgarians will object to that.

Thursday’s joint statement said nothing about the city claiming approval rights over the crucial provincial plans for downtown, set for public release in December.

It merely stated: “The city is assisting in this review and meeting regularly with provincial administration and AECOM (the consulting company) to inform its efforts.

“We are committed to continuing this work and remain optimistic that we will continue to reach decisions that are in the best interests of Calgary commuters.”

NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi sounded off about the project relaunch.

“Yet again, the premier and her minister careen from crisis to crisis, this time trying to solve a catastrophe of their own making,” he said in a statement.

“They lit over $2 billion on fire, and now are desperately backing down, trying to save the Green Line that they killed. Albertans deserve better than this pinball government.

“Minister Dreeshen told hundreds of workers that they were OK in August, that they would lose their jobs in September, and now in October that they’ll be OK until Christmas. Maybe. These are real people, Minister Dreeshen, and they deserve better from you.

“While I’m pleased that the premier and the government have backed down, thanks to the public pressure from Calgarians, community organizations, the construction industry and skilled trades workers, it never should have come to this and would not have under a normal, competent government.”

Nenshi doesn’t say an unkind word about city hall, even though council deserves at least half of them.

The truth is that the province now has exactly what it always wanted — a final tunnel cave-in, and full control over design of the Green Line.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald

X: @DonBraid

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