The MBTA is paying $29 million greater than anticipated for monitor and sign upgrades at South Station.
Dan Beaulieu, commuter rail mission supervisor for the MBTA, stated the $98.6 million development contract awarded to low bidder The Middlesex Corporation was roughly $29 million above the engineer’s estimated value.
The MBTA carried out a root trigger evaluation, he stated, to “understand the variances from the engineer’s estimate to the low bid estimate” by Middlesex Corp., and decided that the prevailing circumstances of the contract drove up the ultimate value.
Those circumstances included market saturation, the specialised work that might be carried out at South Station, and “the very difficult construction arrangement that we have to go through in order to do all this work on weekends and nights only,” Beaulieu stated.
“We determined that a lot of the regional contractors did not bid this job because the commitment of the workforces to nights and weekends over a four-and-a-half-year period would take them out of the ability to utilize those resources during the typical five-day-a-week period,” Beaulieu stated.
The development contract, awarded late this week by the MBTA Board of Directors, will enable for upgrades to the tracks, alerts and switches at South Station.
The mission, the T says, will end in enhancements to the reliability and resiliency of Commuter Rail and Amtrak service into and out of the station. Nine Commuter Rail traces, in addition to Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor and Lake Shore Limited companies, function out of South Station.
“When complete, the project at South Station will address immediate state-of-good-repair needs of current train service, while also supporting future growth of both the MBTA and Amtrak,” T spokesperson Lisa Battiston stated.
The mission’s whole value grows to $169 million, when factoring within the monitor and sign tools that was pre-purchased to make sure the work is completed to “the specifications that the MBTA and Amtrak require,” Beaulieu stated.
MBTA and Amtrak funds are masking the vast majority of the price, however a part of the mission is being paid for with a $41.2 million state of fine restore grant awarded by the Federal Railroad Administration, Beaulieu stated.
Beaulieu stated the MBTA has a $9.7 million contingency on the job, or about 10% of the general development value.
Pointing to the mission already being $29 million over funds, MBTA board member Scott Darling inquired about whether or not the T had sufficient cash to finish the mission in 5 years, as deliberate.
“As I sit here today, I do believe we have the appropriate amount of contingency to run this project, as well as to deal with any unforeseen site conditions,” Beaulieu stated.
Work is anticipated to start in April, and conclude within the spring of 2028.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”