The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority announced Wednesday it has selected five teams to bid on designing and building Metro's Silver Line Phase 2.
Phase 2 includes stations at Herndon, Innovation Center, Washington Dulles International Airport, Route 606, and Route 772.
The five are listed below in alphabetical order, along with their equity members:
- Bechtel Transit Partners
Bechtel Infrastructure Corporation
- Capital Rail Constructors
Clark Construction Group, LLC
Kiewit Infrastructure South Co.
- Dulles APC Railbuilders
Archer Western Contractors, LLC
PCL Civil Constructors, Inc.
Corman Construction, Inc.
- Dulles Metrorail Connectors
Skanska USA Civil Southeast / Granite Construction Company
G.A. & F.C. Wagman, Inc. / Trumbull Corporation
Facchina Construction Company, Inc.
- Silver Line Constructors
Fluor Enterprises, Inc. / Tutor Perini Corporation / Stacy and Witbeck, Inc.
The teams were selected a process intended to emphasize design and construction experience and professionalism and produce a short list of up to five qualified teams to proceed to final bidding.
“This list includes some of the most qualified and most successful engineering and construction companies in the world," Pat Nowakowski, Executive Director for the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project, said in a statement.
"We are proud and excited because this ensures a highly competitive process as we move forward with Phase 2 of this dynamic project. This is a project of local, regional, national and international significance and a gateway to our nation’s capital.”
Other procurement process steps will include the submission of a technical plan and pricing. The award will be made to the firm submitting an acceptable technical proposal and lowest price. An award is anticipated in May 2013. The contract estimated cost is $1.4-1.6 billion.
The completion of construction for Phase 2 is anticipated for mid-2018. The timetable was delayed because of, among other issues, a Loudoun County threatening to withdraw from participation.
Construction of the first phase of the Metrorail Project to the Wiehle-Reston East Station is 82 percent complete and projected to open at the end of 2013. The pedestrian walkway at Wiehle-Reston East will begin installation this weekend. Reston East will be the final stop on Phase 1, which will run from East Falls Church through Tysons Corner to Reston.
In other MWAA news, new directors joined the board as a result of recently enacted legislation that expands its membership from 13 to 17, with four new directors in attendance at Wednesday’s meetings: Lynn Chapman and Caren Merrick from Virginia; Earl Adams, Jr. from Maryland; and Barbara Lang from the District of Columbia. More information is available at:http://www.mwaa.com/5452.htm.
1) Is this apparent huge cost reduction because the bids came in massively lower than the estimates, or are we paying somebody else $1.2 to 1.3 billion for some hidden cost? 2) If the bids are coming in at 52% to 57% of the recent estimates, will MWAA reduce their charge to Fairfax County for the Rt 28 (Innovation) station from the earlier $101 million to $53 to $57 million? That is still more than Fairfield, Connecticut paid for their more than comparable Metrorail station in December 2011, but it is a lot better than the more than double price we were being charged for our Rt 28 / Innovation station until now. 3) Also, if the bids are coming in at 52% to 57% of the recent estimates, will MWAA reduce the price estimates for the five Phase II parking garages from the present double price of $34,015 per space to a more reasonable price of about half that amount?
Are the bids coming in at a price range your research indicates is correct?
The final cost will largely depend of the type of contract awarded and the quality of the spec. Firm Fixed Price is most advantageous to the buyer. "Time and materials" shares the risk between buyer and vendor and is most advantageous to the vendor. On projects this size, contractors tend to make most of their profit (not revenue but profit) on changes. Any variation to the spec - "Oh wait, we need to move that escalator over there!" - invariably results in huge change fees. The better the spec, the less this happens. To answer Bob's questions: 1) unlikely, 2) They'll charge Fairfax County what it costs, which they don't know yet, 3) Who cares? The ACTUAL winning bid will be known on award. Let's wait until then to complain about whatever.
Hmm, questions. Why does the Dulles Rail Phase II per-mile cost (adjusted for components included) exceed the Franconia-Springfield Metro extension per-mile cost (adjusted by inflation) by about two to one? Why does the cost of our Rt 28 (Innovation) station exceed the cost of the more than comparable Fairfield, Connecticut Metro station by more than two to one? Why should the five Dulles Rail Phase II parking garages cost two times as much per space as other area parking garages, and more than two times the cost of the nearby Herndon, virginia downtown parking garage? Are all of these other projects understating their costs by about 50%? And why haven't MWAA's cost estimators been called to testify about such things? Are our so-called 'leaders' lying to us when they keep saying that they are looking for ways to lower the tolls? What should we do about that?
Phase II project costing is so distorted, that it is difficult to discuss it. It includes a hidden, 2.4 overpriced $101 million for the Phase II Rt 28 (Innovation) station that Fairfax County says it will fund separately from the Phase II project books. It states an estimated $34,015 per space (a double price), for parking garages that have been removed from the project books. A huge number of its stated costs are redacted in MWAA's reports to the very public that will pay for it. Those redactions are supposedly justified because there is a Public-Private Partnership in there somewhere. But the overall cost is nearly two times what it should be - isn't a Public-Private Partnership supposed to reduce costs?
Stix - certainly, I am no construction expert. For example, I need to find out how Dulles Rail Phase I managed to spend $773 million on Professional Services, as reported in the April 17, 2012 KPMG Phase I audit. And I have to assume that a similar amount was spent on Professional Services in Phase II. As I say, there must be a lot of happy professionals out there.
I'm quite serious in suggesting that somehow this rail monster should be paid off by some kind of a lottery. I call it 'Making Tracks'. If there is some Virginia law against this, it might be a good idea to change that law - because this rail monster is going to cause a lot of trouble, the way we plan to finance it now.
The recent governance of MWAA is an example of absolute power, corrupting absolutely. But the problem was set up by a former elected leader, Tim Kaine, who gave them unsupervised authority to accomplish a specific task - to get the rail line built. MWAA apparently made this suggestion, but I think it had a somewhat different governing group back then. I really don't know how or why the various appointees were selected - political paybacks for effective fundraising in some cases, who knows what in other cases. But somehow that group got very drunk with power, and who knows what might have influenced their decisions. There are dangers with getting buddy buddy with big money. We have seen problems with hand-in-glove oversight in the nuclear industry, in the banking and finance industry, and more recently in the oil drilling industry. MWAA's recent governance has demonstrated that it isn't such a good thing in the rail infrastructure industry, either.
See Page 9 of the US DOT Inspector General's May 15, 2012 interim report. http://www.oig.dot.gov/sites/dot/files/MWAA%20Interim%20Letter_5-15-12.pdf "MWAA Did Not Maximize Competition or Always Request Board Approval When Required" "MWAA awarded only about one-third of its contracts with full and open competition during the period of our review. [January 2009 to June 2011.]" "MWAA awarded almost two-thirds (64 percent) of its 190 contracts that exceeded $200,000 with less than full and open competition during the period of our review. [January 2009 to June 2011.] ... Of these, 117 contracts ... amounted to more than $220 million." "We also found that MWAA did not obtain required Board approval for high-value contracts as required by its Contracting Manual. These contract awards, which amount to $6 million, did not have Board approval." "4 of the 13 awards (31 percent) valued over $3 million in our statistical sample did not receive Board approval." And it's even worse than that. See: http://www.bruhns.us/civic/DullesRail/Dulles-Rail---Silver-Line-overcost-report---Bruhns.pdf