The city of Edmonton in Alberta, Canada is to reopen a tender for Edmonton Valley Line West Light Rail Transit (LRT) P3 project after two of three bidders have withdrawn their proposals from the procurement process. The project involves the 14-km extension of the Valley Line LRT in the city of Edmonton and the estimated investment needed for the project is CAD 2.6 billion (USD 1.9 billion).

The city has received three bids from Flatiron/AECON/Dragados Valley Line West Joint Venture, Urban Mobility Partners and WestLINK Group led by SNC-Lavalin Group. All three teams were shortlisted earlier this spring.

SNC-Lavalin Group withdrew its bid due to major corporate restructuring which required the company to exit major lump-sum infrastructure projects. Urban Mobility Partners withdrew its bid because of the team member change. This left only Flatiron/AECON/Dragados Valley Line West Joint Venture bid. LRT expansion branch manager Bruce Ferguson said that theoretically this team could complete the project and it is not against the rules to go ahead with just one shortlisted team, but the city prefers to have "as much competition as possible ... to make sure we get the best value for Edmontonians."

Ferguson is positive about reopening the render because there is already interest from companies that could not participate in the original tender because the deadline did not fit their schedules and other commitments.

The second tender could include companies from TransEd team which at the moment works on Edmonton’s southeast Valley Line LRT, who did not submit the proposal initially. The team includes Bechtel, EllisDon, Bombardier and Fengate Capital Management Ltd.

Even though the request of proposals process was originally scheduled for this week, Ferguson doesn´t think there will be a delay in construction which is expected to begin next year and with completion scheduled for 2026-2027.