TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE

 

 

 

 

 

TO:

Mayor and Members of Council

 

 

 

 

FROM:

Alan Brown, Director of Engineering

 

 

 

 

PREPARED BY:

Allan Arbuckle, Manager of Infrastructure & Capital Works

 

 

 

 

DATE OF MEETING:

2004-March-29

 

 

 

 

SUBJECT:

Status Report on the Enterprise Drive/Helen Avenue Extension & GO Rail Grade Separation Construction Project

 

RECOMMENDATION:

 

THAT the report entitled “Status Report on the Enterprise Drive/Helen Avenue Extension & GO Rail Grade Separation Construction Project” dated March 29 2004 be received;

 

AND THAT the Engineering Department be authorized to include the installation of local services as a part of the Enterprise Drive/Helen Avenue construction.

 

AND THAT the total cost of designing and installing these local services plus interest be included in the Area Specific Development Charge for the East Precinct area of Markham Centre.

 

AND THAT the Mayor and Clerk be authorized to enter into an Agreement with the Region of York for the construction and maintenance of the YRTP portion of the GO Rail Grade Separation structure to the satisfaction of the CAO and Town Solicitor.

 

AND THAT the Mayor and Clerk be authorized to enter into Agreements with Remington Group and other agencies which may be required to implement the construction of the Enterprise Drive/Helen Avenue Extension & GO Rail Grade Separation Construction Project to the satisfaction of the CAO and Town Solicitor.

 

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this report is to update Council on the current status of the Enterprise Drive/Helen Avenue extension & GO rail grade separation project. In particular, this report will provide information on the current status of property acquisitions, agreement negotiations, approvals, project scheduling and funding mechanisms.

 

BACKGROUND:

In November of 2001, the Engineering Department commenced the preparation a Class Environmental Assessment for the construction of Enterprise Drive and Helen Avenue from the west side of the GO Rail Line to Kennedy Road in the East Precinct area of Markham Centre.

The purpose of this Environmental Assessment was to identify the preferred alignments of Enterprise Drive and Helen Avenue, to determine the preferred method of crossing the GO rail line,

 

to determine the preferred location and configuration of intersections and to identify

modifications to the existing access to the GO station. An Environmental Study Report  (ESR), which described the preferred alternatives was completed and filed for a 30 day public review on

May 26 2003. In response to this filing, the Ministry of the Environment received a total of four requests for a Ministerial Order to comply with Part II of the Environmental Assessment Act, more commonly referred to as “Part II Order “or “bump-up” requests. These requests were received from two landowners in the East Precinct area whose properties would be directly impacted by the proposed road construction ( GIC Holdings Ltd. and Sylmatt Investments), one resident of Helen Avenue east of Kennedy Road (Mr. G. Baron) and from the York Region District School Board who are proposing the construction of a new high school on lands lying to the north of the preferred road alignment. As a result of negotiations between Engineering Department staff , the landowners, school board and Ministry of the Environment, three of the four requests were subsequently withdrawn and Mr. Baron’s appeal  was denied by the Ministry on December 16 2003.

 

On April 29, 2003, Council endorsed an accelerated road infrastructure construction program in support of Markham Centre.   As a part of this accelerated program, staff were directed to fast track the design and construction of the Enterprise Drive/Helen Avenue extension to Kennedy Road including a grade separation of the GO Rail line. The intention of this fast track program was to complete the construction of the Enterprise Drive connection to Kennedy Road by the end of 2004 or early in 2005. Work on the detailed design of the project, the acquisition of properties, the negotiation of agreements with several parties and the securing of approvals for the project has been ongoing since May 2003 and has advanced to the stage where the contract for the construction of the first phase of the project which includes construction of the railway grade separation structure and the extensions of Enterprise Drive and Helen Avenue to create a southerly connection to Kennedy Road has now been tendered and will close on April 2, 2004.

 

DISCUSSION:

Scope of Project

Since the completion of the Class Environmental Assessment and the presentation of the original scheduled completion date, a number of items of work have been added which have considerably increased the overall size, cost and complexity of the project and the timeframes required to

complete the design work, secure the necessary approvals and complete construction. The major items of work which have been added to the project include;

 

  • The expansion of the underpass structure to 3 spans from 2 to accommodate the future YRTP transitway at an estimated cost of approximately $600,000 to be funded by YRTP.
  • The inclusion of local services ( sanitary sewers, local watermains, storm sewers and services) in the contract. The installation of these services as a part of the current road construction project will reduce the overall cost of servicing the East Precinct area of

      Markham Centre and will minimize future disruption to the roadways at an estimated

      cost of approximately $ 1.6 million to be funded by the Town through a future Area Specific  

      Development Charge for the East Precinct area of Markham Centre.

·        The inclusion of district heating and cooling systems in the contract at the request of Markham District Energy at an estimated cost of approximately $ 1.2 million to be funded by Markham District Energy.

  • The inclusion of reconstruction works on Helen Avenue east of the Kennedy Road intersection at an estimated cost of approximately $200,000 to be funded by the Town through an Area Specific Development Charge for the South Unionville area. The addition of this work will allow the upgrading of the entire Helen Ave/Kennedy Road intersection as a part of this contract which will minimize future disruption of the intersection and facilitate approvals by the Region of York and the Ministry of Transportation.
  • A diversion of the railway line to accommodate the bridge construction. While this change has not resulted in an increase in the overall estimated cost of the project, it will extend the timeframe required to construct the project by approximately 2 months as the rail diversion must be coordinated with and partially constructed by GO Transit personnel.

 

Property Acquisition

The critical properties required to deliver the initial phase of the Enterprise Drive/Helen Avenue extension to Kennedy Road are the GIC Holdings lands and the ORC lands as indicated in Attachment 1.  To date, considerable difficulties have been experienced in reaching an agreement with GIC Holdings and an update on the current status of these negotiations is presented as a separate confidential report to Transportation Committee on March 29, 2004.

 

Negotiations with the Ontario Realty Corporation to acquire the lands required to construct the Helen Avenue extension are underway as a part of the YMCA lands conveyance discussions which are expected to be finalized in the near future.

 

Schedule

The original scheduled completion date for the project of late 2004/early 2005 was based on a construction start of September 2003 and a 14 to 16 month construction period. The addition of several major items of work to the project as described in previous sections of this report has

lengthened the anticipated construction period to approximately 20 months.  The current schedule for the project is:

  • submission of tenders -  April 2, 2004,
  • tender award recommendations to Finance & Administrative Committee - May 3, 2004.
  • Construction start – May 31, 2004
  • Construction complete (road open to traffic) – September 2005

 

Staff does not recommend that the construction tender be awarded unless the required property has been acquired or a firm date for the property acquisition has been established to the satisfaction of the Town Solicitor. Further discussion regarding the impact of the property acquisition delays on the scheduled construction completion date is provided in the confidential report for this project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Required Approvals

The complexity of the project requires a large number of regulatory agencies approval including:

 

Agency

Approvals Required

Toronto & Region Conservation

-      stormwater management and drainage works including outlets to the Rouge River and tributaries

Provincial Ministry of Transportation

-      impact on future Highway 407 transitway corridor and construction of the Helen Ave/Kennedy Road intersection improvements.

407 ETR

-      Construction of the Helen Ave/Kennedy Road intersection improvements

GO Transit

 

-      Construction of underpass structure, construction of Helen Ave, vehicle access to GO station, parking lot modifications, drainage modifications and rail line detour.

CN Rail

 

-      Construction of underpass structure and rail line detour.

Provincial Ministry of the Environment

-      Construction of sanitary sewers, watermains and stormwater drainage works, air and noise emissions from pumping station

Region of York

 

-      Helen Ave/Kennedy Road intersection improvements, connection to YDSS, YRTP transit works.

 

Discussions with and submissions to each of these agencies has been ongoing for a number of months and it is anticipated that all necessary approvals will be in place prior to the start of construction.

 

Agreements 

Agreements are required with GO Transit/CN Rail for the construction and maintenance of the underpass structure and with area landowners including GIC, ORC and the Remington Group for the acquisition of properties and easements required to construct the project. Council has previously authorized the Mayor and Clerk to execute these agreements subject to the satisfaction of the CAO and Town Solicitor. An Agreement is also required with the Region of York regarding the funding for construction and maintenance of the YRTP portion of the railway underpass structure. Discussions to finalize this agreement are ongoing and staff is requesting that the Mayor and Clerk be authorized to execute this agreement subject to the satisfaction of the CAO and Town Solicitor.

 

In addition to the specific agreements which are described in the preceding paragraph, there may be other agreements which will be required by other agencies in order to proceed with the construction of the project. While the need for any other agreements has not been identified todate, additional

 

 

agreement requirements may arise as conditions of securing the required approvals for the project.

 

Staff is therefore requesting that the Mayor and Clerk be authorized to execute any other agreements which may be required to implement the construction of this project subject to the satisfaction of the CAO and Town Solicitor.

 

FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS:

There are no financial implications to the Town associated with this report at the present time.  A full financial summary will be presented to Committee for consideration once the tender has been closed and property costs finalized.  In addition staff will be bringing forward to Council by June 2004 an area specific development charge by-law for approval to recover the local costs associated with the tender (i.e. servicing) with interest.

 

BUSINESS UNITS CONSULTED AND AFFECTED:

The Legal Services and Finance Departments have reviewed this report and their comments have been incorporated.

 

ATTACHMENTS:

Attachment A - Area Map

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alan Brown, C.E.T.

Director of Engineering

 

Jim Baird, M.C.I.P., R.P.P.

Commissioner of Development Services