A Strabag led team has been awarded a C$255M (£149M) contract to design, build and finance the second section of the Eglinton Crosstown light rail transit (LRT) extension in Toronto, Canada.

The Strabag team has won the second tunnel package on the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension. The project known as Advance Tunnel 2 will include design and build work on a 500m tunnel from east of Jane Street to Mount Dennis Station.

West End Connectors won the first tunnel package in May 2021. It covers the main 9.2km tunnel extension of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT (future TTC Line 5), running mainly underground from Mount Dennis Station to Renforth Drive.

Austrian construction company Strabag was awarded the fixed-price contract for the second package by Infrastructure Ontario (IO) and the Ontario transit agency Metrolinx.

Strabag will handle the development, the construction and the finances, while WSP Canada and Dr Sauer & Partners will handle the design work.

The Eglinton Crosstown West Extension Advance Tunnel Contract 2 scope of work includes the design and supply of mining and tunnelling equipment.

It also includes the design and construction of the launch and extraction shafts and a tunnel portal east of Jane Street, and the tunnel between the portal and Mount Dennis Station using the sequential excavation method.

On top of this, the Strabag team will carry out utility work and road modifications along Eglinton Avenue West to accommodate construction activities.

The project is being delivered through IO’s public-private partnership model, which transfers appropriate risks associated with design, construction and financing of the project to the private sector.

Enabling works for the Advance Tunnel 2 project are ongoing and major construction is expected to begin later in 2024.

Construction work on the first phase of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT is well underway. Tunnelling on the project kicked off in April 2022.

Once complete, the extension of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT will create a continuous rapid transit line that stretches from Scarborough, through midtown Toronto, and into Mississauga.

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