Alberta schools P3 project wins major national infrastructure award

An exterior rendering of Blackfalds High School, being built as a P3 project. Photo courtesy Government of Alberta

A $300 million public-private partnership (P3) to build Alberta high schools received the gold award at the 2022 National Awards for Innovation and Excellence in Public-Private Partnerships, for adapting and refining the “made-in-Canada” P3 model to create, deliver, operate, and maintain innovative and transformative infrastructure

The awards were hosted by Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships (CCPPP) on November 21, 2022. Concert Infrastructure and its partners won the award titled “Project Development-Gold Award” for the ‘P3 Schools Bundle #2’ at the CCPPP annual conference in Toronto. Other project partners include Alberta Infrastructure, Bird Capital, Bird Construction, Wright Construction and Ainsworth.

Once completed in 2024, the schools will serve almost 7000 students in the municipalities of Blackfalds, Edmonton, Leduc, and Langdon. Additionally, it is estimated that the use of a design-build-finance-maintain P3 will save $114.5 million compared to a traditional design-bid-build approach over the project’s 30-year life cycle.

“This year, the projects being honoured are transforming our communities, from building state-of-the-art high schools and hospitals to bringing critical broadband service to rural and remote citizens,” says Lisa Mitchell, CCPPP’s president and CEO. “These projects demonstrate the continuing evolution and resiliency of the P3 model in delivering best-in-class infrastructure for Canadians that is innovative and cost effective.”

“On behalf of our partners, we are very proud to accept this award which not only validates the P3 model in delivering critically needed schools, but also speaks to the level of innovation and value for money that such a partnership brings to Alberta, as it has on previous projects here and across Canada,” said Derron Bain, managing director of Concert Infrastructure. “This is the second award in as many months for this project, which reinforces our belief that this approach is a successful template to meet the demands of growing communities.”

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