The Ontario Government has taken the next step toward building the Yonge North Subway Extension by awarding a fixed-price contract worth $1.4 billion to build and finance the advance tunnelling component of the project.

“The Yonge North Subway Extension is a critical part of our $70 billion investment to build public transit in communities across Ontario,” said Premier Doug Ford. “As we get shovels in the ground on this critical project, we’re helping keep thousands of workers on the job and we’re building the infrastructure that will boost Ontario’s economy and help thousands of York Region commuters get where they need to go faster and more conveniently.”

The North End Connectors consortium, which includes Aecon Infrastructure Management Inc., FCC Construcción and Ghella, will design and build the twin 6.3-kilometre tunnels for the extension. The tunnels will run from Finch Station on TTC Line 1 to south of Langstaff Road in Markham, where the extension will shift to a surface-level segment.

The contract also includes early works construction of support headwalls for future stations and emergency exit buildings. Once complete, the Yonge North Subway Extension will accommodate over 90,000 daily trips.

The tunnelling project is being delivered as a Design-Build-Finance contract, using a public-private-partnership.

Aecon says it intends to add its $477-million share of the contract to its construction segment backlog in the third quarter of 2025.

“Today, we’re taking a major step forward as we build the Yonge North Subway Extension, revolutionizing travel across the region and extending subway access to Vaughan, Markham and Richmond Hill for the first time,” said Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria.

Following completion of the design, major tunnelling will begin along with a separate procurement to build the extension’s stations, rail and systems. With recent upgrades at Finch Station completed to make it easier to connect the existing Line 1 service to the future subway extension, other preparatory work such as utility relocations are now underway.

The Yonge North Subway Extension will put 26,000 more people within a 10-minute walk of transit and will reduce daily travel times by up to 22 minutes on a trip from Markham to downtown Toronto, getting commuters where they need to go faster. The extension is estimated to cut the distance travelled by personal vehicles by 7,700 kilometres during rush hour and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 4,800 tonnes each year.

Construction of the Yonge North Subway Extension is expected to generate more than $3.6 billion worth of total economic benefits and supporting approximately 4,300 jobs during each year of construction.

The Government of Canada is contributing $2.2 billion in funding for the project.