As part of the Master Plan study, consultants were retained by the cities to develop a concept for the LRT system, including a preliminary concept for the route and its connections.
In December 2011, the cities entered into the Preliminary Design and Transit Project Assessment Process (TPAP) Phase, to proceed with requirements for engineering, designing and conducting environmental assessments for a proposed LRT system.
The Preliminary Design/TPAP Phase (2011 through 2013) will help to determine the engineering, design and cost of building the system.
Through a competitive bidding process, SNC-Lavalin – a Canadian engineering firm with extensive international experience – and its group of expert consultants was chosen to lead the Preliminary Design/TPAP Phase of the LRT project.
There are 5 stages within this phase of the project. Each stage includes extensive engineering, design and technical work. An essential part of advancing the project is through a ‘design freeze’ process, where the design process temporarily stops to gain feedback from stakeholders and the public. This input will inform further development of the concept design, leading to the next round of internal and external consultations and another design freeze. Feedback after a design freeze cut-off would be considered and/or used in the next stage of the design up to the commencement of the regulatory TPAP Process.
