Port Authority awards $10.5M contract
New firm to design next phase of BRT
The Port Authority voted Friday to award a $10.5 million contract to AECOM Technical Services to continue the design of the proposed Bus Rapid Transit system between Oakland and Downtown.
The board’s vote — a unanimous decision — means the Port Authority will switch away from the company that oversaw the first phase of the project. That company, Boston firm CDM Smith Inc., had subcontracted part of the project’s first phase to Michael Baker Inc. — the company that bid against AECOM forthe second phase.
As part of the first phase, CDM Smith received a $2.4 million contract for preliminary work on the BRT plan and completed roughly 30 percent of the project’s design. The company spent two years holding public meetings, selecting the preferred route for the system, and creating an application for federal funding for roughly half of the $195.5 million project.
The second phase will take the project to 60 percent of its final design.
The decision to move away from Smith and Baker in the middle of the project had been the source of controversy in the weeks before Friday’s meeting.
After the authority’s Performance Oversight Committee conducted an extensive review process and recommended AECOM in a meeting last Thursday, state Rep. Dom Costa, D-Morningside, who sits on the board, suggested the Port Authority should not switch to a new company in the middle of
the project.
He later agreed to recommend approving AECOM as the vendor as long as the Port Authority addressed his concerns before Friday’s board meeting. Mr. Costa, who called into the board meeting, could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.
Port Authority CEO Katharine Eagan Kelleman said she thought Mr. Costa changed his mind and voted to approve AECOM because the board was able to have “good conversations” with the representative and address his concerns in the days leading up to the meeting.
“We did have a separate conversation with him about that process to answer the questions and explain why it was the best way to go forward with selecting a vendor,” she said.
She noted Mr. Costa had raised questions about the vendor’s “local presence,” and the board had explained to him that AECOM employs “over 200” Pittsburgharea workers.
The Port Authority is seeking $98 million in federal funds, about half the cost of the project, but officials have said they plan to move ahead with the project even if they don’t get funding.
Asked about the likelihood of securing this money, though, Ms. Kelleman said she is optimistic.
President Donald Trump’s administration has not set aside “a lot of federal funding” for local infrastructure projects, she said, but Congress can also parcel out funding, so the project could still receive a Federal Transit Administration grant.
“We will continue to work with our partners in D.C. to be as competitive as possible, get the money, and bring it back home,” she said.
She said she has “no reason” to believe the Port Authority will not be able to secure federal funding and is confident that “this project is going to happen.”