CH2M Hill Inc. was awarded a program and construction management contract for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s rebooted Green Line Extension. The $57-million contract is the project’s largest since the scaled-down $2.3-billion project was halted two years ago after costs skyrocketed $1 billion over budget. The Federal Transit Administration, which has pledged $1 billon for the project, green lighted the new estimated cost structure in April.
MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo says CH2M “has the skills, experience, and resources necessary to strongly support the MBTA’s strict management of the project’s cost.” Another cost-control measurement is the MBTA’s use of a design-build delivery method instead of the MBTA's prior contracting and project-delivery method, called construction manager/general contractor. It was used to allow the contractor to provide input on design and to begin work before design was finished, but the method, according to critics of the project, failed to induce the contractor to limit its price.
CH2M will be responsible for design-build proposal review and evaluation as well as estimating and scheduling services, quality control and quality assurance, web-based program management information systems, stakeholder engagement and construction field support services.
While CH2M has office space in both Boston and Cambridge, approximately $7 million of the contract will be fore leasing space near the project site.
The contract begins next month and will be completed in Dec. 2022, approximately a year after the project’s scheduled completion date. The project will include seven new stations and two new branches emanating from a relocated Lechmere Station in East Cambridge through Somerville and into Medford.
Three months ago, the MBTA short listed three design-build teams: GLX Constructors, Green Line Partners and Walsh Barletta Granite JV. The MBTA will issue a final request for proposals on May 23. Bids are due in September for work that will begin in February.
This blog post was amended May 19th to clarify the project delivery and contracting methods originally used on the Green Line Extension.
