Companies from across Canada and the world participated in a rigorous, competitive Request-for-Qualifications process that evaluated their design, construction, maintenance and financing abilities to deliver the highest quality LRT project – on time and on budget.

“This is an important step forward in implementing light rail for Ottawa,” said Mayor Jim Watson. “Collectively, these firms have built over $ 100 Billion dollars in light rail projects and 2000 km of tunnels in cities across the globe. These companies have built successful projects in cities such as Athens, London, Madrid, Reims, Sydney, Calgary and Vancouver. These are some of the biggest, most experience, and most capable firms in the world.”

The result is a shortlist of three consortia made up of world-class firms with extensive expertise in transit infrastructure projects. These consortia, listed alphabetically, are as follows:

Ottawa Transit Partners (OTP) led by VINCI Concessions, with ACCIONA Concessions Canada Inc., ACCIONA Infrastructure Canada Inc., Aecon Construction Group Inc., Bombardier Transportation Canada Inc., and VINCI Construction Grands Projets as prime team members.

Rideau Transit Group (RTG) led by ACS Infrastructure Canada Inc., with EllisDon Corporation, EllisDon Inc., Dragados Canada Inc., SNC-Lavalin Capital, SNC-Lavalin Constructors (Pacific) Inc., and Veolia Transportation Services Inc. as prime team members.

Rideau Transit Partners (RTP) led by Bouygues Travaux Publics S.A., with Brookfield Financial Corp., Fiera Axium Infrastructure Canada LP, Parsons Enterprises Inc., Parsons Canada Ltd., Colas Rail S.A. and Johnson Controls L.P. as prime team members.

“The clear winner in this process will be Ottawa” said Mayor Watson. “The collective reputations and experience of these firms will make for a fierce competition during the procurement process to move faster, innovate further and bring the best value to the City.”

The firms will compete throughout the Request-for-Proposals process, scheduled to commence later this month and close in July 2012. Working with our commercial procurement lead, Infrastructure Ontario, the City will select a winning proposal in late 2012 for approval by City Council with construction to commence in Q1 2013.

The OLRT project, the best and most cost effective solution to the City’s long term transit needs, will generate more than $3 billion of economic activity and 20,000 person-years of employment during construction alone. To maximize the local economic impacts of this investment, the City of Ottawa will be hosting a local trade show in early 2012.

The selected teams will now advance designs for the proposed system in order to provide competitive fixed price costing to build, finance and maintain this project. These three teams will represent the core teams in the procurement process. Each may add more companies to their team as they advance design and find partnerships with local business.

City.Mobi

Also in Canada today, City.Mobi is celebrating the success of its new guide to Ottawa.

City.Mobi offers the most comprehensive mobile travel guides available, with over 800 cities in 200 countries listed. Each is developed by the City.Mobi team to combine into a single global travel directory.

However, each city retains its own mobile identity via a dedicated domain. Already on offer are Brussels.Mobi, Paris.Mobi, Sanfrancisco.Mobi and Sydney.Mobi.

Ottawa.mobi is the latest in this illustrious line up, offering click to call functionality – which means no scribbling down telephone numbers.

Most entries are also linked to websites where users can quickly access more detailed information if needed.

Other key features include information on accommodation, restaurants, attractions, entertainment, nightlife, shopping, and transport.

City.Mobi guides include user reviews and traveller utilities such as a translation guide, currency converter, news and local weather guide.