Three groups vie

• Stoney Trail Group is led by Bilfinger Berger BOT

Correspondent

Three companies have been asked by the provincial government to submit proposals to develop the northeast leg of Calgary’s ring road as a public-private partnership (P3).

• Stoney Trail Group is led by Bilfinger Berger BOT

Inc., British Columbia branch office;

• Alberta Trails Group is led by Carillion Canada ltd., Ontario branch office;

• Access Roads Calgary is led by ABN AMRO Bank N.V., British Columbia office.

The consortia, composed of financing, construction, design and maintenance companies, were chosen from four teams that responded to the Request for Qualifications.

The Request for Proposals closes in November and the successful consortium will be chosen by December if the winning proposal falls within the range of the comparison the government is doing with costs should they be handled by the public sector.

So as not to sway the process the government is not releasing the public sector comparator cost estimates until private proposals are received.

The project to bypass Calgary on its east side from Deerfoot Trail to 17th Avenue S.E. involves 21 km. of four and six-lane roadway, six interchanges and 22 bridge structures.

If the provincial government elects to go with a P3 for the Calgary ring road, which has been talked about for decades, construction could start in spring 2007 and be complete by the latter part of 2009.

Even before that project gets under way Calgary is experiencing its busiest road construction summer in the city’s history. The City of Calgary has launched 15 major projects worth a total cost of $700 million. This year’s $250 million worth of infrastructure spending will go towards such projects as:

• The $110 million Glenmore Trail/Elbow Drive/ 5th Street S.W. interchange which is the largest

and most complex interchange project ever done

by the city;

• The 16th Avenue North urban corridor which will upgrading the TransCanada Highway at a cost of $70 million;

• The $73 million Shaganappi/Beddington/Country Hills widening project; and Northeast and North- west LRT extensions totalling $426 million.