The Société de transport de Montréal (STM) will announce on Monday that it is returning to a call for tenders to extend the rapid bus service (SRB) Pie-IX to Notre-Dame Street, learned The Press. The project was put on hold last fall due to excessive costs. This time, we promise, the strategy has been “revised” to obtain a lower bill.
In September, the STM had canceled the call for tenders for the extension of the SRB Pie-IX towards Notre-Dame due to an explosion of costs. At that time, two bids had been received, one for 181 million and another for 135 million, while the budget planned by Quebec was only 78 million.
According to the director of the SRB Pie-IX project, Marc Dionne, the cause of this cost explosion was “twofold”. “First, we went to a call for tenders in June. This is the worst time for the construction industry, because two weeks before the holidays, everyone is overwhelmed. We know that there are firms that would have liked to bid, but did not have the time or the resources,” he explains.
It’s our fault, but we were also very aggressive on the schedule, with penalties. It can scare entrepreneurs. And when entrepreneurs are scared, it’s reflected in the price.
Marc Dionne, director of the SRB Pie-IX project
This time, the STM will launch a call for tenders at the “best time” and with a new strategy. “Coming back from the holidays, all companies want to build their order book. It is estimated that we will have more submissions. The completion schedule will also be longer, with more flexible conditions,” insists the director.
The company says it has chosen to “assume certain risks”, such as the potential strong market fluctuation. “There will be clauses that will come to protect the entrepreneur from this phenomenon,” says Marc Dionne.
To reduce costs, “optimizations” have also been planned in terms of technical interventions. For example, the telecommunications equipment belonging to Bell Canada, under Notre-Dame Street, will not have to be moved. “This will allow even more savings,” argues the CEO.
Heading for summer 2027
In theory, the bidding period should be spread over five to six weeks. The STM expects to award the contract “to the lowest conforming bidder” by June. The extension between the Olympic Stadium and rue Notre-Dame should theoretically be completed in the summer of 2027. The main section of the SRB, on the Pie-IX axis, has already been in service since November.
On paper, the extension remains relatively the same: a lane reserved for the SRB in the center of the roadway, with three new stops planned at the intersections of rue de Rouen, rue Ontario and rue Sainte-Catherine, over a distance of 1.6 km.
IMAGE PROVIDED BY THE STM
Route of the SRB Pie-IX, including the extension to rue Notre-Dame
Initially set at around 300 million, the SRB Pie-IX budget has experienced several cost overruns in recent years. Including the addition of the extension to Notre-Dame, the bill for the project will be around 653 million. So far, the budget was around 525 million, not including the extension.
It is the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain and the City of Montreal that share the financial package, mainly. With the extension to Notre-Dame, their contribution increases respectively from 393.8 million to 472.5 million, and from 131.3 million to 180.2 million.
In a statement sent to The Pressthe chairman of the STM board of directors, Éric Alan Caldwell, recalled that the service offer has been increased “by more than 15% south of avenue Pierre-De Coubertin since the commissioning of the SRB Pius IX”.
Mayor Valérie Plante speaks of the extension to Notre-Dame as “very good news”, at a time when “the growth of the car fleet is creating unsustainable pressure on our road network by increasing the risks for the most vulnerable”. “Projects like the SRB Pie-IX are necessary and to do more, we need better funding from transport companies,” she says.
“In addition to building a bridge between Laval and Montreal, the SRB will be connected [au futur prolongement] of the blue line, a goal that we will also complete. This is further proof that our government is making public transit a real priority,” said Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault.