RandomWalk
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In this context, what do you classify as “soft costs”?
MBTA Commuter Rail (Operations, Keolis, & Short Term)
- Thread starter Balerion
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F-Line to Dudley
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Contractors managing contractors managing design and build. They're getting absolutely killed by professional services fees on station design, construction and renovation because the in-house project management expertise is completely gone, and instead of seeking efficiencies (like wadding up similar-design station renos into contract bundles) they're mounting each of these instances as slovenly, larded-up discrete projects that get completely bogged down at the starting gates. It doesn't help that permitting is a bitch and that accessibility regs end up being a big source of cost bloat on the actual designs, but instead of looking at their daunting backlog of non-accessible stations and determining "we need to step it up internally with the oversight if we're going to survive this" they're just outsourcing ever more aggressively and throwing up the white flag (or cutting off one's nose to save face with these dwell-and-schedule killing shortie platforms) when costs sail to absurdity and/or the designs flat-out don't work. I mean, we're not even blinking anymore at stops like South Attleboro--with pre-existing and to-be-unchanged parking lots and site access--costing $30M more in partial renovation than it cost RIDOT to site and build all-new Pawtucket/Central Falls completely from scratch.
It's not like they're just getting started on Waverley, either. We were talking almost 10 years ago on aB about the last bullshit design renders presented for ADA'ing the station, which included an absolutely ludicrous number of long switchback ramps at the tail ends of the station because they absolutely refused to consider a simple central elevator to the Square. It was so Rube Goldberg-esque that it basically made a complete mockery of the ADA in spirit while still conforming to the letter of the law, and the community hated it. The T turtled under and did nothing for a full decade, but it's already racked up sunk professional services costs on this reno through lack of oversight.
This isn't sustainable. Something big has to change in the way they approach these projects.
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WestMedford
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When “later this week” turns into over a month later. West Medford station. All photos looking north. Much more progress on what is typically the inbound track vs the outbound track.
My understanding is that expanding in-house project management and design is something that Eng is pushing alongside more in-house capacity in general. Admittedly what I've heard is so far is that available in house capacity has largely been very maintenance / TIP / SoGR focused rather than capital, but once it's there you might as well use it elsewhere. There's apparently a bevy of new construction/ engineering management roles being created, and my understanding is that despite the long list of upcoming professional services contracts, under Eng basically none have actually been awarded. That said, it's probably always going to be the case that there will be consultants involved, especially for the specialized details like code and environmental, where a 3rd party makes sense. That's often why you use a consultant in the private sector - specialist knowledge you use infrequently. Other times it's so you can point at their report and say "the independent expert agrees it's a good idea" to the board, or as a liability shield - you point at their stamp on the drawings if anything goes wrong.
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