The opening of the $1.4 billion Evergreen line in Metro Vancouver has been pushed to the fall of 2016.

The tunnel boring process has been slower than anticipated, according to the Ministry of Transportation. While there was some time contingency built into the schedule for tunneling, the contractor now is forecasting that the Evergreen Line, originally scheduled to open in summer 2016, will be ready to open in fall 2016.

The Evergreen Line project, which will connect Coquitlam City Centre through Port Moody to Lougheed Town Centre and also connect to the existing Expo and Millennium Lines, remains on budget. The contractor is responsible for all costs related to the schedule delay under the terms of the fixed price contract.

The overall project is more than 50 per cent complete. Construction is well underway on all aspects of the project, including roadworks, guideway, station areas and tunnel boring. Once the Evergreen line opens, Metro Vancouver’s SkyTrain system will become the longest automated rapid transit system in Canada.