The Government of Alberta, Canada, has shortlisted a total of three teams to develop the Southwest section of the Calgary Ring Road through a PPP contract.

Five teams responded to the request for qualifications (RFQ) issued in July, but finally only three groups have been shortlisted:

• Mountain View Partners: Meridiam Infrastructure North America Fund II (Meridiam), Kiewit, and Alberta Highway Services.

• Valley Link Partners: VINCI, Acciona, and Eurovia.

• Southwest Connect: Hochtief, ACS, Aecon, Carillion, and  Flatiron.

The Southwest Calgary Ring Road project involves construction from Highway 8 to Macleod Trail SE including reconstruction of Glenmore Trail from Sarcee Trail to east of 37 Street. The infrastructure components to be undertaken by the contractor include, among others, the design and construction of: 31 km of new six lane and eight lane divided freeway, 14 Interchanges, one road flyover, one railway crossing (flyover), and three river crossings over the Elbow River and Fish Creek.

The project is being procured through a design, build, finance, operate (DBFO) process. The project will also include a 30 year operating, maintenance, and rehabilitation agreement.

Alberta Transportation will provide partial funding for the project in an amount currently anticipated to be between 50% and 70% of the successful bidder's capital cost of the project. The successful bidder will be required to supply private financing for the balance of the capital cost of the project.

We have recently reported on several PPP projects in Canada:

• Finch West Light Rail Transit
• Schools P3 project in Saskatchewan (Regina)
• North Commuter Parkway and Traffic Bridge Replacement project in Saskatoon
• Stanton Territorial Hospital Renewal project
• Moncton Downtown Centre
• Mount Sinai Hospital renovation P3