Group picked to build South Fraser Perimeter Road

By Jeff Nagel
Black Press

A Spanish-led consortium of companies has been picked to build the $1.1-billion South Fraser Perimeter Road after a lengthy procurement delay.

The provincial government said Friday the Fraser Transportation Group will advance to detailed negotiations to finalize a contract to build the 40-kilometre four-lane truck freeway connecting Deltaport to Highway 1 and the Golden Ears Bridge.

The group consists of ACS Infrastructure Canada and Ledcor Industrial/Mining Group Ltd. as equity partners and Dragados Canada Inc., Ledcor CMI Ltd., Belpacific Excavating and Shoring and Vancouver Pile Driving Ltd. as design-build contractors.

ACS and Dragados are subsidiaries of a major Spanish infrastructure firm.

Fraser Transportation beat out two other groups of bidders, which included SNC Lavalin and Pieter Kiewit, and is to be repaid for its $800-million investment in the public-private partnership over a 20-year period.

The announcement comes 17 months after the province first short listed qualified bidding groups in January of 2009.

The transportation ministry announcement also indicates the project is now slated to be completed in 2013, one year later than previously planned.

Ledcor was not previously listed in the Fraser Transportation Group and has replaced former equity partner Zachry American Infrastructure of Texas.

Last year, the province gave up on a struggling financing partner for the $3.3-billion Port Mann/Highway 1 expansion project and opted instead to directly borrow all the money.

Ministry officials would not say why the equity partners in the perimeter road have now been changed.

"For internal reasons they needed to amend the makeup of their consortium," ministry spokesman Dave Crebo said.

The planned South Fraser Perimeter Road has been under fire from opponents because it means bulldozing homes, carving through sensitive ecosystems and paving over farmland.

Critics have also argued the road is now unnecessary because port activity is unlikely to reach the optimistic forecasts on which the project was based.

The government maintains the road will improve trade, reduce east-west travel times and take truck traffic off of local roads.

About $300 million of the work is being directly financed and led by the provincial government.

The project is now 30 per cent complete.

Crebo said the northeastern section from 176 Street to the Pattullo Bridge is slated to be finished by the end of 2012, with the southwestern leg to Deltaport not expected to be finished until the second half of 2013.

NDP North Delta MLA Guy Gentner said the changing partners and delays appear to be signs of trouble with the procurement.

"It seems to me they're making this up as they go along," said Gentner, who noted the province has opted to preload at taxpayers' expense and risk the road sections where the underlying ground is considered most unstable.

"I think it's going to cost us a whole lot more money all-in than what they're telling us."