Project Overview

The QEW Garden City Skyway Bridge Twinning Project scope includes:

• Construction of a 2.2 km twin Garden City Skyway bridge connecting the Niagara Region, City of St. Catharines and Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake.
• Widening the QEW approaches (including on and off ramp reconfiguration) to the new bridge.
• The realignment and reconfiguration of some local roads will be necessary to accommodate the new bridge piers.
• Construction of a pier protection system in the Welland Canal.
• Construction of retaining walls, drainage and stormwater management ponds.
• Relocation of affected utilities.

The project will be completed through a Progressive Design-Build (PDB) contract model. The PDB model follows a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) and Request for Proposal (RFP) procurement process, with a separate Development Phase Agreement (for design and development) and a Project Agreement (for construction). The PDB model provides an opportunity for greater collaboration among the project owner (MTO), the successful bidder (Skyway Bridging Partners), additional project partners, and the communities. Responsibility for the maintenance and operation of the QEW Garden City Skyway twin bridge will reside with MTO.

Subcontractor Procurement Process

The project schedule includes:

• Development Partner Selected: June 2025 – Skyway Bridging Partners
• Development (project design) Phase: June 2025 to January 2027
• Construction Start: 2027

Skyway Bridging Partners (SBP) has been selected as the Development Partner for the QEW Garden City Skyway Project. SBP is comprised of Green Infrastructure Partners Inc., Flatiron Dragados Canada Inc., and Construction Demathieu & Bard Inc., supported by their design partners Arcadis and GHD Ltd.

The Development Partner will complete the detailed design for the new twin bridge and associated works throughout the Development Phase.
Once this design work is complete, MTO will have the option to sign a contract with SBP to proceed into the construction phase of the project.

Further information can be found at the Garden City Skyway IO website.

In 2017, MTO completed a study that followed the process for a Group ‘B’ project under the Class Environmental Assessment (EA) for Provincial Transportation Facilities (2000) and identified strategies to address the long-term structural, traffic safety, and operational needs of the QEW crossing of the Welland Canal.

The Class EA was documented in the 2017 Transportation Environmental Study Report (TESR) that recommended the following improvements:

• Construction of a new QEW Garden City Skyway twin bridge to the north of existing bridge.
• Rehabilitation of the existing QEW Garden City Skyway.
• Re-alignment of local roads to accommodate the new highway right-of-way and bridge structure.
• Minor changes to interchange ramps and speed-change lanes.
• Full or partial acquisition of private properties, federally owned land (St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation), provincially owned land, Niagara Region-owned properties, City of St. Catharines-owned properties and property owned by the Town of Niagara-on-the-lake.
• Relocation of affected utilities.
• Construction of three stormwater management ponds.

Transition to New Class EA

In February 2024, changes to the Class EA process took effect when amendments to relevant sections of the Environmental Assessment Act (EAA) came into force. The result was amendments to seven Class EAs to align with the EAA and new regulations for moving to a project-list approach for projects that will require a comprehensive environmental assessment.

The Garden City Skyway Bridge Twinning Project followed the Class Environmental Assessment (EA) for Provincial Transportation Facilities (2000) as a Group ‘B’ project, amendments to the Class EA for Provincial Transportation Facilities include:

• Changing the name of the Class EA to Class EA for Provincial Transportation Facilities and Municipal Expressways.
• Expanding the class of projects to which the Class EA applies to include:
  
  • Planning of new provincial freeways
  • Municipal expressway projects
• Categorizing establishing of a freeway or expressway as a Group A project.
• Categorizing changes to a municipal expressway as Group A, B or C projects, depending on the change being made.
• Including transition provisions related to the designation of the comprehensive EA projects.

With these changes, the QEW Garden City Skyway Bridge Twinning Project remains a Class ‘B’ project and will be transitioned from the previous Class EA to the amended Class EA in accordance with the 2024 Class EA for Provincial Transportation Facilities and Municipal Expressways, including but not limited to the requirements for consultation and notification. A memo has been prepared outlining how the transition would affect the Class EA process that had commenced and supporting rationale for the proposal to transition from the requirements of the Class EA as it read before the 2023 amendment, to the 2024 amended Class EA.

• Transition Memo
• Notice of Proposed Transition
• Final Notice of Transition