Construction on Edmonton's Valley Line LRT is set to start this spring, after the city signed a contract Thursday with the consortium in charge of the project.

TransEd Partners, a group led by Bechtel, Bombardier, EllisDon, and Fengate Capital Management, has been negotiating an agreement with the city since it was chosen out of three approved bidders in November to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the 13-kilometre line.

City spokesman Quinn Nicholson said the actual price and other details from the 30-year contract with the public private partnership, also known as a P3, won't be released for up to two months while lawyers remove any commercially sensitive information.

However, the deal is within the $1.8-billion budget without changing the scope, he said.

"There's no hidden surprises."

Construction will begin this spring, although geotechnical tests and other preparations could start sooner, he said.

TransEd hasn't yet given the city a work schedule.

Related - Edmonton Valley Line LRT update

"It will come sometime in March and then we will have a better idea of what's coming when,"Nicholson said. "This being a P3, we tell them what to do and the criteria around it … and then leave it up to them."

EllisDon, Bombardier, which is providing the LRT vehicles, and Bechtel will handle operations and maintenance of the route, which is supposed to start carrying passengers in late 2020 to Mill Woods Town Centre from downtown.While Edmonton Transit won't run the line, the low-floor LRT will use ETS fares, branding, marketing, safety and security, Nicholson said. He didn't know whether staff will wear ETS uniforms.

"If you get on the system at any point, it shouldn't be distinguishable, not like you're on the private part or the ETS part," he said.

"It should seem like you're on any other part of the system."

San Francisco-based Bechtel said in a news release it's the lead partner for design and construction, helped secure financing and will assist with operations and maintenance.

TransEd members have delivered, maintain and operate LRT and other transportation projects in such cities as London, Riyadh, Toronto and Ottawa, Bechtel says.

Newly released city estimates indicate the Valley Line is expected to produce 20,000 direct and other jobs in Alberta, plus another 3,000 in the rest of Canada, over the course of construction.

This will help maintain Edmonton construction activity in a year when other transportation projects, such as northeast Anthony Henday Drive, will be completed.

A further 14,000 operations and maintenance jobs will be created in the country over 30 years, the city says.

gkent@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/GKentEJ