Montreal REM cost revised up to $6.5 billion

MONTREAL — Project owner CDPQ Infra has announced it has reached a “work optimization agreement” with NouvLR, the consortium building the REM electrified rail transit system in Montreal, to revise certain construction timetables.

The revisions mean the budget for the project had been increased by $230 million, to $6.5 billion.

The agreement confirms the existing 2023 delivery schedule for the project, according to a Dec. 17 statement, while adjusting the timetable for such interim components of the project as the closing of the Mont-Royal tunnel.

Pursuant to the agreement, the closing of the Mont-Royal tunnel will be postponed until March 30, 2020, so that the consortium can “improve its preparation for the work to be done on this part of the project,” the release indicated.

The agreement was reached in acknowledgement of challenges the consortium says it has faced in the first 18 months of construction, including:

• Timely access to sites and infrastructure necessary to deliver the project across Greater Montreal, where there are multiple work sites in operation simultaneously;
• An increase in the pace of all design work carried out by the consortium for the project to be delivered within the planned global schedule; and
• The availability of the labour necessary to deliver the REM in a stressed job market. Over the course of the project, 34,000 positions will be required to execute the REM work.