The Toronto–York Spadina extension wins ‘Substantial Performance’ certificate

The FCC and OHL have been rewarded for their €267 million expansion of the Toronto-York Spadina subway line. The public transport project in Canada also included the construction of the Highway 407 station and the Northern tunnels. Receiving the ‘Substantial Performance’ certificate represents the last contractual milestone and the opening of the project.

The Highway 407 station and adjoining bus terminal is intended to be a transit hub along the Northwest segment of the (TTC)’s Yonge-University line. The station is situated on a junction and composed of an underground multilevel structure of reinforced concrete. Next to it is a bus terminal with a steel structure of a single plant and three wings, with capacity for 18 docks of buses. Part of the project is a parking lot with 600 seats and an area for passenger collection of 30 seats.

The second core component of the project is the Northern tunnels contract including 3.85km of twin 6m diameter and 3.85 km long Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) mined tunnels. A 200m Sequential Excavation Method (SEM) tunnel, two reinforced concrete box crossover structures, four emergency exit buildings and three cross passages connect the tunnels.

At present, all works related with the Northern Tunnels contract are complete.

FCC and OHL were also awarded the ‘2015 Major Infrastructure (Canadian) Project of the Year’ presented by the Tunnelling Association of Canada (TAC). The central criterion for award consideration was the demonstration of the utmost levels of engineering skill and knowledge of underground construction. In addition, the deadline achievement and safety standards reached during works were highlighted.

The effective completion of the 200m SEM hand-mined tunnel is also considered to be a great accomplishment, as careful consideration was required due to the tunnel passage running beneath existing power transmission corridors and major gas pipelines. This well-known technique was used for the first time in Canada.