Projects Confederation Line GETTING READY TO RIDE THROUGH CANADAS CAPITAL Ottawas Confederation Line is as high profile as transport schemes can be a state-of-the-art signature project slicing through the heart of Canadas capital city. Viewpoint found out more Words Andrew Bennett W heels are due to turn on passenger services on this 12.5kmlong passenger transit service which connects Ottawas centre to the east and west of the city in mid-2018. Roger Woodhead, SNC-Lavalins Vice-President for Engineering Services in North America, has been involved with this flagship scheme for more than four years, first as manager of the joint-venture bidding team and more recently as design manager for the engineering aspects of the project also being delivered as a joint venture. This shows our full capabilities in financing, designing, building and maintaining transit systems, says Roger. The one thing missing here is that were not doing the operations for the finished railway but it shows our cradle-to-grave capability. Quite frankly, I dont believe anyone else in Canada has all those skills in-house. Rush-hour pressures With a population of one million, Ottawa boasts high transit use at around 20% of local residents in the Ottawa-Gatineau metropolitan area and the Confederation Line Light Rail Transit (LRT) supports a push to get residents out of their cars and onto public transport. The new LRT, the first in Ottawa, will displace the high-frequency bus rapid transit (BRT) system, which was introduced in the 1980s and allows buses to run in their own right of way, separate from those used by the public. This has proved to be highly successful, with 10,000 passengers an hour in each direction at peak times, and more than 900 buses running at peak hours in each direction. A victim of its own success, the bus system now faces capacity problems, with long queues in the citys downtown area because of rush-hour congestion, although it uses the one-way street system. The LRT system a project worth around Can$2bn will partly use the existing bus roadway through Ottawa, plus a new 2.5km tunnel section under the city centre, which includes three underground stations. There will be 13 stations in total, and the infrastructure has progressed in recent months. Testing of the passenger vehicles the low-floor Alstom Citadis, which can travel at up to 80kmph should be under way on a test track section of the guideway before the end of the year. Qualification testing has already started on the first vehicle and the second fully assembled in Ottawa is also undergoing testing. At ultimate capacity, the LRT can accommodate up to 25,000 passengers per hour per direction. Using Canadian resources CLoSe TeAmwork SNC-Lavalin has been working with a number of joint-venture partner companies on the Confederation Line. These are split between the following partners: Financing: SNC-Lavalin, ACS and EllisDon Design-Build Joint Venture: SNC-Lavalin, Dragados and EllisDon Engineering Subcontractor: SNC-Lavalin, MMM (now WSP) Maintenance: SNC-Lavalin, ACS and EllisDon On completion, the Confederation Line will be operated by OC Transpo, the transit authority for Ottawa This shows our full capability of financing, designing, building andmaintaining transit systems Stations are nearing completion on the eastend of the line and are taking shape on the west, and most of the project engineering is done. The first vehicle was built in New York Roger Woodhead State, but the remaining 34 will be fullyassembled in a new Vice-President Engineering Services, North America maintenance facility in Ottawa, built as part of the project. SNC-Lavalin and its partners have exceeded the requirements for at least 25% of the content of the vehicles for instance, components used, or the labour employed to be Canadian. Engineering work has included construction of the tunnel, which is oval- shaped and about 20-25 metres below the citys streets. The construction teams have used three road header machines to grind away rock; these are big vehicles with articulated rotating booms topped with tungsten carbide bits. As well as carving through sandstone, the teams have had to tackle glacial till in a former valley beneath the citys surface; this consists of rocks, sand, silt and other materials dumped by a glacier, and is more difficult to dig through because of the variability of the material. Other challenges have been the need to draw on remote engineering expertise, given the relative lack of knowledge in the Ottawa area. Engineering work was mostly done in Vancouver and Toronto; there is a three-hour time difference between the capital city and Vancouver. Communications challenges Roger, who hails from Huddersfield, England, and first came to Canada in 1967, says the biggest challenge has been communicating effectively. In our engineering team alone we have had about 450 people, and in the construction team almost 2,000 people, he adds. When you have to communicate with that many people, it can be challenging. Nonetheless, the project is on schedule and Roger says everyone from the jointventure teams involved is very much looking forward to riding on the finished line. Transit projects make a tremendous difference to cities, he says. They change peoples patterns of commuting and there is always a lot of development around finished stations, known as transit-orientated development. You get a tremendous feeling of pride every time you ride on a completed system because you were involved in a project that is running successfully. viewpoint@snclavalin.com snclavalin.com