Province releases Green Line report amid growing pressure over cost estimate, design choices

Third-party Green Line alignment report released The provincial government has released a third-party report giving us an idea of what Calgary's Green Line could look like.

After initially insisting its independent report on the new Green Line route needed to remain confidential, the province has made it public – with a lot of information missing.

The province said it wanted to give Calgary city council and the Green Line working group time to look over the information before making the report public.

Now it is public, though there is a lot redacted, including details on cost estimates and reasons why the route itself was chosen.

Missing information means Calgarians still don’t know why there’s a disparity in possible cost bet between the province and the city.

The Alberta government insists its elevated route through the Beltline and downtown would save money and cost $6.2 billion.

City officials say they’ve identified an additional $1.3 billion that is not included in this newly-released report.

What it shows

What is shows is an elevated track along 10^th Avenue is what was looked at, and three options were considered about streets to head north: First Street, Second Street and Sixth.

Second Street is what was ultimately recommended, but there is no explanation why.

It does say that proposed route would impact 10 properties, and a Plus-30 and parkade ramp would need to be removed.

It also says there could be impacts on the water feeder main and other underground utilities – but it’s what the province prefers over a tunnel.

"We needed to stretch the Green Line farther to southeast past Lynnwod/Millican,” said Alberta transportation minister Devin Dreeshen. “(And) make sure it connected to at least Shepherd and that's why we hired (third-party consultants) Aecom -- and they found a better alignment.

“And now  the ball is in the city's court,” Dreeshen added, “to be able to make the next move on whether they approve this new or better Green Line alignment.”

The report is 165 pages with numerous redactions, so there is a lot to go through.

We will learn more from officials Thursday morning.

The hope from the province is that councillors will make a decision on whether to proceed with the elevated track scenario sometime next month.