Three consortiums have entered submissions for a US$1.9bn light rail system for the city of Edmonton in the province of Alberta, Canada.

The city’s request for submissions, which closed on 24 February, was for the Edmonton Valley Line West Light Rail Transit project, which is to take the form of a public–private partnership (PPP).

The project will be the second phase of the 27km Valley Line LRT, running 14km from Mill Woods through downtown to the west end.

The second phase was originally to be a conventionally procured scheme, but is being retendered as a PPP after two of three shortlisted teams withdrew their bids in November.

SNC-Lavalin pulled out after the company decided to move away from lump-sum infrastructure projects, while the second team, led by Vinci subsidiaries Eurovia and Carmack, withdrew because of a change in team members.

That left a Flatiron-Aecon-Dragados joint venture in the race. It has now been joined by two new contenders. The three are:

The Aecon–Dragados Valley Line West Joint Venture, which also includes ACS Infrastructure and Sener of Spain, as well as Canadian designers and engineers Architecture49, Kasian Architecture Interior Design and Planning, Klohn Crippen Berger, Ledcor CMI, Platinum Engineering and WSP.

Marigold Infrastructure Partners, made up of Colas Infrastructure of France, US engineer Parsons, and Canadian firms Francl Architecture, Fast + EPP and Stantec.

UrbanTransit, which includes: Astaldi of France, Salini-Impregilo of Italy, FCC of Spain and IBI Group of Canada.

The city will announce its shortlist on 12 March and hopes to sign a contract with the winner by the end of the year. The line is due to begin operating in 2027.

TransEd Partners, a consortium led by US engineer Bechtel, was selected to deliver the first phase of the project.

Bechtel said at the time that the City of Edmonton was Canada’s second fastest-growing city, and was expected to increase in size by 50% by 2040.

Image: The government of Alberta’s rendering of the Valley Line scheme

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