Wanted: Partners

MTA Seeks Assistance from Industry for Massive Transportation Projects

by Natalie Keith

With the Metropolitan Transportation Authority embarking on the first major expansion of the subway system in a century, the agency is seeking help from the contracting and design communities to ensure completion of major projects.

"We want to hear from the contracting and consulting communities about how we can do our jobs better," said Mysore Nagaraja, president of the MTA's Capital Construction Co. "We've got to work together. If we don't, it's shame on us."

Nagaraja addressed an audience of about 250 at an early summer seminar called "How to Do Business with (The New!) MTA Capital Construction Co." The seminar was hosted by New York Construction magazine and the Building Trades Employers' Association.

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The seminar is one of three outreach programs the MTA Capital Construction Co. has conducted in the past several months to inform the industry about upcoming projects and detail ways in which firms can get work.

The Capital Construction Co. was formed in July 2003 with the mission of overseeing five huge transportation projects. The projects are:

• The $6.3 billion East Side Access project that will bring Long Island Rail Road commuters into Grand Central Terminal.
  
• The $16 billion Second Avenue Subway line that will relieve overcrowding on the Lexington Avenue line.
  
• The $2 billion extension of the No. 7 subway line that will provide a link to the Jacob Javits Convention Center.
  
• The $750 million Fulton Street Transit Center that will improve access to nine subway lines and include an underground concourse that will connect to three additional subways, the PATH train and the redeveloped World Trade Center site.
  
• The $400 million South Ferry Terminal that will replace the existing two-track terminal with a three-track station and eliminate end-of-the-line bottlenecks.

So far on the East Side Access project, the Highbridge Yard in the Bronx and the bell-mouth open-cut excavation were completed in November 2003. The demolition of the Superior Reed Building and preparation of Yard A along with the Grand Central Terminal East Yard environmental remediation were done in October 2003.

The Arch Street Yard and Shop is expected to be completed in September, said Joseph Siano, MTA senior vice president and program executive.

Siano said work will start soon on digging the tunnels for the project. In Queens, 5,500 ft. must be dug and in Manhattan 4,400 ft. must be dug. Grand Central Terminal structural preparation work will also be awarded this year.

"The new LIRR station will be an attractive space, Siano said. "It's made to emulate, but not copy what we have at Penn Station."

Siano detailed the extensive history of the Second Avenue Subway, a project that has been on the books since 1929. In 1972, a groundbreaking ceremony for the project was held and three tunnel sections subsequently constructed. But that effort died in 1975 when the city experienced its worst fiscal crisis.

However, the MTA is anticipating that the first shovel will go into the ground for the 96th Street station, the first to be constructed under current plans, by the end of the year. The first section of the line to be built will run from 96th Street to 62nd Street, will cost $3.8 billion and will carry 202,000 passengers on its first day of operation.

In the second phase of construction, the line from 125th Street to 96th Street will be built, the third phase will include construction of the line from 62nd Street to Houston Street and the fourth phase will include construction of the line from Houston Street to Hanover Street, Siano said.

Seven contracts for this project will be awarded in the coming months, with the first contract already "on the streets," he said.

"There's a lot of work and we all have to work together," Siano added.

Joseph Trainor, MTA vice president and program executive, said the draft environmental impact statement for the extension of the No. 7 subway line has been completed with the final statement expected to be completed in the fall. The first of the contracts for the project, a running tunnel design-build contract, was advertised in August and will be awarded in April. Under that contract, the caverns from 29th Street and 11th Avenue past the Jacob Javits Convention Center and to 41st Street and 10th Avenue will be created.

"Past that point, we anticipate using drill and blast techniques," Trainor said.

Under broader plans for the Far West Side included in the planning process for the subway line extension, a projected 40,000,000 sq. ft. of mixed-use commercial space is anticipated to be constructed in the area by 2025, he said.

"There is going to be a tremendous amount of work there," he added.

Designs for the Fulton Street Transit Center were released in May with construction expected to be completed by 2007.

"We really want it (the center) to be a destination," Nagaraja said. "That project is really going to change the look of Lower Manhattan."

For the South Ferry Terminal project, four firms were selected to participate in a request for proposal process. The winning firm will be selected in October, Trainor said.

Veronique Hakim, MTA general counsel, said the agency elected to award work using a request-for-proposal process because it enables the MTA to establish a better partnership with contractors and allows for potential problems to be addressed prior to the start of construction.

Contracts for work can be found on the MTA Web site at www.mta.info, but they are also advertised in the New York State Contract Reporter, Engineering News-Record and the New York Post.

In an effort to enhance the "user-friendliness" of the agency, the MTA has developed procedures for scheduling issues, payment provisions and change orders.

"We want to hear from you," Hakim said. "We want to have a good dialogue. The goal is to have a win-win contract."

Kenneth Neal, MTA director of civil rights, said projects funded with federal money require a 17 percent participation rate of minority- and women-owned businesses. With projects that are not funded with federal money, the requirement is 10 percent for MBEs and 5 percent for WBEs.

"Generally speaking, we expect you to meet those goals," Neal said.

Frank McArdle, managing director of the General Contractors Association of New York, served as the moderator for the event. He said the work needs to be completed in a manner that minimizes disruption to communities.

"We're going to have to do the work in a way that communities allow agencies to come back and do more work," McArdle said.