While the same cannot be said about progress on the Metro Line, a report presented to the LRT governance board shows the Valley Line LRT extension is on time and on budget.

"The project has a timeline and we are meeting those timelines," said Al Maurer, chair of the LRT governance board, at a meeting on Thursday. "There's milestones that have been set, and the expectation is that we will meet the requirements and we can start negotiations to a financial close in November."

Phase 1 of the Valley Line LRT expansion project would see a line run from Mill Woods Town Centre into the downtown core at an estimated cost of $1.8 billion, while the second phase of the project would see that line extended to Lewis Farms, at a cost of another $1.4 billion.

While funding for the second phase of the Valley Line has yet to be secured, the city has already committed $800 million for the southeast leg of the line.

As well, city administration is banking on $310 million from the provincial government's Green Transit Incentives Program (GreenTRIP) which is subject to a funding agreement, and $250 million from a federal P3 funding program, which again has been approved conditionally pending a funding agreement.

The city has also applied for $150 million from the federal Build Canada Fund, which the province has agreed to match should that application be approved.

The city of Edmonton would also take a $140-million interest-free loan from the province to finance the project.

And administrators are in the final stages of acquiring the land to construct the Valley Line, with the last dozen outstanding land acquisitions of 102 necessary for the project to go ahead in the process of being expropriated.

As the LRT governance board awaits a November deadline for submissions of bids to construct the Valley Line under a P3 funding model -- where the company designing and building the project would also provide funding for it -- work has already begun with relocating utilities and negotiating the disassembly of the Harbin Gate.

But while this report showed progress on Edmonton's Valley Line, the same cannot be said for all LRT projects in the city.

Mayor Don Iveson said this week he was "furious" with continued delays on the $655 million Metro LRT line to NAIT, which is now 15 months behind schedule.

"Of course we hear all the things that are going on with the other projects in the city," said Maurer, "but the [Valley Line] project team has laid out a schedule and we are asking the team to abide by that schedule and so far we have been very successful in doing that."

If progress continues on the Valley Line, Maurer said a contract for the project could be awarded in early 2016.

@ClaireTheobald

claire.theobald@sunmedia.ca