What’s a more difficult feat: deciding to bring something back from the dead, or actually pulling it off?
City and provincial leaders declared Thursday that parts of the Green Line would be reanimated after the two governments agreed to advance work on existing plans to construct the new LRT line from 4th Street S.E. to Shepard.
The province also reaffirmed its previous financial commitment of $1.5 billion.
Now comes the tricky part.
“It is Step 1, as far as going south,” said Coun. Andre Chabot, who was part of a smaller provincial-city working group that has met in recent weeks to find ways to preserve existing parts of the project.
“Now, what are we going to do about downtown, because all of this has to connect — and so that is going to be the hard part.”
With nearly $1.3 billion already spent on purchasing land, design and construction work — and facing another $850 million required to wind it down — all that was left was to write the obituary and assign blame.
However, this week’s announcement indicates the two sides have agreed to preserve existing contracts and design work, saving more than 700 jobs.
“If everything had to start from scratch, it really would have delayed this by years, or really just killed it all together,” Dreeshen said in an interview.
“The Green Line is still alive.”
Mayor Jyoti Gondek had a slightly different interpretation.
“I would say that the hope of a north-south rapid transit spine is still alive. The Green Line project, as we knew it, is no more,” she said in an interview.
“Whatever the replacement looks like, whatever the new version looks like, that remains to be seen.”
New project, old project, Green Line, Chartreuse Line — the name doesn’t matter.
What does matter is building a rapid transit project that efficiently moves people to where they need to go in a booming city.
And, yes, the route will matter.
The province insists it won’t follow the city’s original plans, which included expensive tunnelling downtown. It’s hired a consultant to come up with a revised route into the core, either opting for an elevated or at-grade alignment. The province insists it must connect to the Red and Blue LRT Lines, along with the new arena.
It’s unclear if this is truly a new beginning, or we’re just waiting for the funeral rites to be read aloud once the difficult discussions from the consultant’s report arrive in December.
“The Green Line lives another day,” David Cooper, principal of transportation planning firm Leading Mobility Consulting, said in an interview Thursday.
“We’re agreeing on things we’ve always agreed on, which is helpful and keeps the project alive. But, at the same time, the big driver of the project is getting people to downtown, and that’s still to be resolved. And how we do that will have complexities from a cost and technical perspective.”
Cooper said the challenges of building at grade means the project would take up downtown road space, while an elevated line would have to integrate with the Plus-15 system.
Dreeshen and Gondek gave credit to the working group set up last month that looked to salvage work already completed.
The group included Chabot and Ward 14 Coun. Peter Demong, UCP MLA Myles McDougall (Calgary-Fish Creek) and officials from both governments — along with the mayor, premier and transportation minister.
“Those working groups have been very, very productive,” Dreeshen said. “I’m very optimistic that if council approves this at the end of this year, that we can see significant construction happening on the Green Line in 2025.”
From the city’s perspective, Gondek agreed it helped to have a smaller committee discuss the project with the temperature turned down.
“These smaller groups having discussions about what’s possible, did get us to the point we’re at today,” the mayor said.
Having provincial money back on the table is huge, and the new accord should minimize, if not eliminate, any unrecoverable costs on the project, Chabot added.
Asked about the prospects of the line being built, the Ward 10 councillor said he’s “90 per cent confident it’s going to happen.”
Business groups, which had been calling for both sides to find a resolution, are pleased to see the progress.
“It’s a Green Line Phase 1,” said Calgary Construction Association president Bill Black.
“And if they hadn’t arrived at this decision, it would have been a nothing line.”
Chris Varcoe is a Calgary Herald columnist.