CANADA: Metrolinx has awarded a CAD 4.32 billion target-price contract for Toronto’s Ontario Line Pape section, covering three kilometres of twin tunnels, two underground stations and integration with the existing Line 2 subway.

Westbound Line 2 platform at Pape Station in Toronto
Westbound Line 2 platform at Pape Station in Toronto. Photo: Dillan Payne, CC BY-SA 2.0.

The contract, equivalent to about USD 3.15 billion, goes to the Pape North Connect consortium of Webuild Civil Work, FCC Canada, Arcadis Professional Services (Canada) and AECOM Canada. It follows the development phase under the Progressive Design-Build model, in which the client and contractor worked together on design, cost estimates, planning, site investigations and the final target-price arrangement.

The physical scope runs beneath Pape Avenue between the Gerrard and Minton/Don Valley Bridge portals. Along with the twin tunnels and underground stations at Pape and Cosburn, the package includes two portal structures, three technical and emergency-egress buildings and a track crossover near Pape Avenue and Sammon Avenue.

Two TBMs will drive the Pape tunnels

According to Metrolinx, the Gerrard tunnel launch shaft will be the starting point for two tunnel boring machines. The TBMs are to be assembled and lowered into the reinforced shaft before travelling north beneath Pape Avenue.

Their planned route runs first to Pape Station, then to Cosburn Station and finally to the Minton Place portal, where the machines are to be removed after completing the roughly three-kilometre drive. Concrete segments for the tunnel walls will be stored at the launch site, while excavated soil, rock and debris will return to the shaft on a conveyor system for removal.

That sequence gives the northern bored section a defined construction path from Gerrard through both underground station sites to the Don Valley edge.

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Pape Station will be built around the Line 2 connection

Pape is also the package’s main interface with an operating subway line. Metrolinx’s construction update for Pape Station says excavation is being carried down to the existing TTC station so its foundations can be exposed and reinforced through underpinning.

After that work, excavation continues below the Line 2 structure to create the underground cavern for the future Ontario Line station and tunnels. The cavern must be prepared before the north-section TBMs pass through the site.

Metrolinx says the future Ontario Line station at Pape will be positioned out of the street and straddle Line 2. The arrangement is intended to support smoother transfers between the two subway lines while limiting some construction impacts on street traffic.

The Pape package is one part of a 15-station line

The wider Ontario Line is planned to run about 15.6 km from Exhibition Place to the Science Centre area, with 15 stations and connections to the existing subway, GO Transit, streetcar and bus networks.

Metrolinx expects the completed line to carry up to around 47,000 passengers per hour in each direction during peak periods. Passenger service is expected to begin in the early 2030s.

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