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Alberta launches Calgary ring road PPP

The fourth PPP road project in the Canadian province would bring the road encircling its largest city 25 kilometers closer to completion. A final southwest portion of the road requires a land purchase from a neighboring first nation but is expected to be completed by 2015.

Cezary Podkul -

9 March 2009

The Alberta government has issued a request for qualifications (RfQ) for the completion of a 25 kilometer stretch of a road that will encircle the Canadian province’s largest city, Calgary.

The government intends to complete the southeast stretch of the Calgary ring road as a public-private partnership (PPP) in which the province will be guaranteed a fixed price and delivery date from a private-sector partner that will design, build, finance and maintain the road for 30 years.

It is the fourth PPP procurement for a road project in Alberta. Besides two stretches of the Edmonton ring road, the northeast stretch of the Calgary ring road was awarded as a PPP in 2007 to the Stoney Trail Group, a consortium that included Bilfinger Berger BOT and Flatiron Constructors as major financial and construction partners, respectively. Construction on that 21 kilometer part of the ring road started in spring 2007 and is expected to finish this fall.

The province decided to launch the procurement of the southeast leg of the ring road while it negotiates with the Tsuu T’ina First Nation to acquire land for the ring road’s final 30 kilometer southwest stretch.

“It’s a very complicated negotiation. Even if the nation agrees to it, the federal government would also have to approve the deal for the land,” said Trent Bancarz, a spokesperson for the province.

“Our overall goal is to finish all the legs of the ring road by 2015,” he added.

Construction on the 25-kilometer southeast stretch of the ring road would start in spring 2010 and finish by fall 2013, or two years earlier than through conventional delivery methods, the province estimates.

The contract would also include maintenance of a small stretch of an adjacent road called the Deerfoot Trail.

The Alberta government declined to release cost estimates for the project. Local media reported that the cost of the project could be as much as C$1 billion (€614 million; $777 million).