Eglinton Crosstown timeline remains murky with no 'credible schedule' for its completion: Mulroney

The construction consortium responsible for building the Eglinton Crosstown has yet to deliver a “credible schedule” for the completion of the project and there is still no timeline for when it will be up and running, Minister of Transportation Caroline Mulroney says.

The $5.5 billion project was initially slated to be completed in 2020 but its opening has now been pushed back multiple times.

The latest timeline called for the project to be substantially completed by this past September and open a few months later, however Metrolinx has since acknowledged that Crosslinx Transit Solutions – the construction consortium it hired to build the line – “have fallen behind schedule” once again and have been unable to provide a new timeline.

The Toronto Sun also reported on Thursday that the line won’t be operational until 2024 at the earliest, attributing that information to government sources.

Construction on the Crosstown began in 2011.

“I would love to be able to provide a date, but that is contingent upon CTS delivering a credible schedule to Metrolinx and as of yet CTS has not been able to do that,” Mulroney told reporters during an unrelated news conference on Thursday. “But I understand that that conversations are going well and I can tell you Metrolinx is working around the clock to make sure that we can get to this point (of having a new timeline) but we don't have that yet.”

Work on the Eglinton Crosstown was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, as work stoppages and some ensuing supply chain issues resulted in a myriad of delays.

At one point Crosslinx filed a lawsuit against Metrolinx and Infrastructure Ontario, saying they should not be held responsible for delays related to the pandemic.

A judge eventually sided with the consortium and the two sides renegotiated an agreement, which would have seen the line substantially completed by this past fall.

Metrolinx President and CEO Phil Verster told reporters on Thursday that Crosslinx has since “fallen well short of its own targets of delivery,” under the new schedule, specifically when it comes to the testing of the system.

He said that Metrolinx, in turn, has pushed the consortium to “rethink that schedule and to restructure the resources and the work that's being done” but has not yet been given any assurances.

“We cannot start with the training of the TTC operators until the system is fully complete and ready and up to now the completion of the site and surface testing is only about 50 per cent of what we expected it to be,” he said.

Verster said that there are a number of technical reasons for the latest delays on the Crowsstown, including 260 quality issues that must be rectified.

“The biggest quality issue which we're dealing with is that in 2021 the track work was completed outside of specification. That needs to be rectified and despite our urging and our guidance, it's only directly being rectified now,” he said.

CP24 has reached out to Crosslinx Transit Solutions for comment but has not yet received a response.