THE City of Winnipeg was once warned the full cost to repair and update the underground concourse at Portage Avenue and Main Street could reach as high as $46.8 million.

That potential tab includes $12.6 million to repair the underground over the next 10 years ($16.8 million with inflation), according to the “Portage & Main Underground Concourse Facility Condition Assessment report” written by SMS Engineering Ltd. in May 2019. The cost could soar another $15 million to $20 million higher, if surface work to get access to the roof membrane is included, raising the total price to $32.6 million ($46.8 million with inflation), the report adds.

The report cautions that the roof membrane price is a preliminary estimate.

The city stresses there’s still work to do to pin down a final price.

“At this point in time, those estimates… do not include actual costs or contingencies,” said Kalen Qually, a city spokesman, in an email.

The engineering report was posted online with a new request for proposals. The RFP seeks a consultant to design the most immediate and critical underground repairs at the Portage and Main concourse, which opened in 1979, and determine a more refined cost estimate for the work.

That plan will address repairs that are required over the next five to 10 years to keep the concourse “accessible and available to the public while the city continues to develop a more comprehensive investment strategy,” wrote Qually.

The head of council’s property and development committee said the need for repairs at the aging concourse is obvious.

“There’s a lot of work that we know needs to be done. Of course, any time we have (a price estimate) that high it is a bit of a shock… We would have to look at this closely,” said Coun. Cindy Gilroy (Daniel McIntyre).

Gilroy said she believes some of the repairs are critical, including those that address safety.

The engineering report details many problems at the aging concourse, including a Portage Avenue skylight that “leaks during any major rain event.”

It concludes the waterproofing membrane, most of the mechanical systems and most of the electrical systems are “beyond their theoretical service life” and should be replaced. It also found the site’s “obsolete” fire alarm doesn’t meet current code or life safety standards.

Investments in Portage and Main have become a hot topic, especially since Winnipeggers voted against reopening the intersection’s aboveground crossing to pedestrians in 2018.

Coun. Brian Mayes (St. Vital), a former property and development chairman, stressed the underground repairs can’t be ignored, even if pedestrian access never resumes.