Three engineering teams, led by Acciona, Strabag and Webuild, were invited to bid for the Pape tunnel and underground stations contract in April last year.

It forms part of the 15.6km Ontario Line subway project, running from Exhibition Place, through the heart of downtown Toronto, to the Ontario Science Centre. It will include a total of 15 new stations and more than half of the route is planned to run underground through new tunnels. The remainder will run along elevated and at-grade rail corridor sections of track.

The standalone rapid transit line could cost up to C$19bn (£11bn) to deliver.

Following an evaluation of proposals submitted in September, project owner Metrolinx has signed a development and master construction agreement (DMCA) with the Pape North Connect team, under a progressive design-build contract.

The Pape North Connect team comprises:

Applicant leads: Webuild Civil Work and Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC) Canada

Design team: Arcadis Professional Services (Canada) and Aecom Canada

Construction team: Webuild Civil Work and FCC Canada.

The contract’s scope of work includes 3km of twin tunnels, two tunnel portals, two underground stations, and underpinning of the existing TTC Pape Station.

According to Infrastructure Ontario, the DMCA incorporates a multi-stage design process called a development phase. This phase will allow Metrolinx and Pape North Connect to work together to finalise the scope, risk allocation and pricing of various elements of this contract.

The development phase is anticipated to take approximately two years. Early works construction can commence during this phase. Once the development phase has concluded, Metrolinx will have the option to sign a final target-price agreement with Pape North Connect. This would include final agreements on detailed designs and a negotiated price.

The Ontario Line project is being delivered through various public-private partnership, progressive design-build and traditional procurement contracts.

A joint venture between Vinci Construction Grands Projets and Ferrovial Construction was awarded the Ontario Line South contract in November 2022.

The Ontario Line is one of four priority transit projects announced by the province in 2019 for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. The others are the Yonge North Subway Extension, the Scarborough Subway Extension and the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension.