Segment 5: On Track?

Complexities of Nearly 45-Mi. Project Were Underestimated

by Scott Judy

Simply by its scope, the 43.5-mi. of "double-tracking" contained within Tri-Rail's Segment 5 contract makes this project one of the biggest ever undertaken in the state of Florida. Even so, since joint-venture firm Tri-County Rail Constructors first started work in January 2002, it's become evident that the construction team failed to realize just how big and complicated it would be.

"It's been more (challenging than we thought)," said Dan Mazza, director of engineering and construction for South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, the agency that owns and oversees the Tri-Rail system. And because of the length of the project - previous double-tracking contracts measured about 7-8 mi. in length - "You've got more people with their hands in the pie," he added.

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Dave Mazzo, project manager for Tri-County Rail Constructors, agreed. He said the interaction with third-party groups, such as local municipalities, rail operators and utility providers, proved to be more cumbersome than either entity had envisioned. And most of these third-party groups had requirements that impacted the phasing and construction of the project.

"The impact to the owner's operation versus the amount of (utility) locations necessary to progress the massive amount of work and to maintain schedule was seriously underestimated when the contract was put together," Mazzo said. "It had an impact on the schedule of virtually every activity.

"We expected it to be complicated but it was an order of magnitude more difficult than expected," he continued regarding the coordination effort.The project has required a lot: laying nearly 45 mi. of a second mainline track; upgrades and replacement of existing track; upgrades to the northern maintenance and layover facility; construction and rehabilitation of bridges over 12 canal crossings; renovation of nine existing stations; construction of a new Boca Raton Station and demolition of the existing facility; acquisition of new locomotives/cab cars; and upgrades to passenger information systems.

The major effort also meant more than 1 million cu. yds. of excavation and fill; 270,000 railroad ties; 72 at-grade traffic crossings; 10 station upgrades; 30,000 lin. ft. of various retaining wall and crash walls; 300,000 tons of railroad ballast; 18 bridges; and associated signal work.

All Aboard

Before 1999, when the Tri-Rail Commuter Rail Authority (now SFRTA) began moving forward with plans for Segment 5, the owner had been progressing on its double-tracking effort in much smaller increments of about 7-8 mi. in length - as much as the agency's budget would allow.

These were relatively small steps in the authority's long-range effort to double-track the entire length of its 72-mi.-long system. With a totally dual-tracked system, the authority could provide 20-minute headways between trains. According to studies, the ability to provide this frequency would greatly improve ridership and perhaps triple it within several years.

During this planning period, design-build was growing in popularity, and the state had even approved the use of the delivery method by public agencies. When the federal government provided guaranteed funding for the entire remainder of the system, the owner opted to finish out the double-tracking with one massive design-build contract - Segment 5 - and meet its goal of 20-minute headways.

"They wanted to get this done in a short period of time," Mazza said. "We did all of the other ones as design-bid-build, and it would take right around two years to do an 8-mi. section. The fastest way they thought they could do that was by doing it design-build."

Tri-County Rail Constructors - a joint venture between Herzog Contracting Corp. of St. Joseph, Mo.; Granite Construction Co. of Tampa; and Washington Group International of Boise, Idaho - won the project with a $231 million cost figure.

Herzog, the joint venture's lead contractor, is providing project management and overseeing track installation and related civil work. Granite is building all structures, including numerous stations and bridge crossings. WGI is providing design and quality assurance/quality control.

Herzog Contracting is part of the same firm that also owns Herzog Transit Services, which operates the Tri-Rail system.

Third-Party Issues

From the beginning, the sheer size of Segment 5 made it a different ballgame. Mazza said that previous projects "were small enough that we were kind of under the radar. And we could get (some) things done with just the field crew."

Segment 5's radically higher profile has invited closer scrutiny by all manner of groups, most notably CSXT, the rail-car provider and operator for Tri-Rail, which has been given project review and approval authority.

"It just seems like there's a lot more steps that we have to go through to get CSXT's approval," Mazza said. "They're basically approving everything."

But it's not just CSXT. "It's the learning curve of getting everybody onboard who wasn't involved with these projects in the past," Mazza said. "When you have to get approval from more people, it makes things harder to manage."

For example, input from the third parties led to a complete reshuffling of the work plan, Mazzo said.

"The general plan was to build and cut-over new sections of track before proceeding to take other sections away for reconstruction/upgrades," he said. "However, the additional constraints due to third-party requirements dictated that we resequence the entire schedule." In short, the contractor had to work where it could, when it could, according to these third-party requirements.

Generally speaking, crossings and bridges were independently progressed with the intention of having them ready so as to not impede the earthwork and track work. Also, the contractor had as many as eight stations progressing simultaneously.

Additionally, the contractor experienced another hinderance to the original schedule when new water-retention rules enacted by the South Florida Water Management District mandated a recreation of the drainage structure for the entire Tri-Rail right-of-way. This impacted the excavation portion of the contract.

"There was considerable cut/fill required in order to accommodate the retention requirements of South Florida Water Management District, Lake Worth Drainage District and Army Corps," Mazzo said.

Design-Build Impact

With these hurdles and others - including the discovery and necessary relocation of an endangered species of gopher tortoises, plus DOT-added extras such as sound-barrier walls in Palm Beach County - both project cost and schedule have grown.

Instead of the original $231 million figure, both owner and contractor are using $261 million as the new cost. And that probably won't be enough, Mazza said. "We have $15 million of contingency, and I envision us using every bit of that," he added.

As for the schedule, that's shifted from the original March '05 deadline to November - though the March target still stands as the contractual deadline. "Whether it ends up being liquidated damages to the contractor, or whether we end up negotiating days, is yet to be seen," Mazza said.

Mazzo insisted that TCRC is making up lost time.

"The completion of the north end of the project will be accomplished by beginning of 2005, and coordination of remaining work as well as subsequent impact to operations will be greatly improved," he said.

SFRTA's Mazza also has seen improvements here.

"It could probably be said that early on in this project there wasn't enough communication going back and forth," he said. "But I think now all of the parties have the same goal, and that's trying to get this project finished and trying to minimize delays. Everybody's working well together now, including CSXT."

Meanwhile, opinions differ on the impact of using design-build.

Mazza, who previously worked with Florida DOT, said he is unconvinced as to its benefits, indicating this project may not have been well-suited to the delivery method.

"The jury's still out," he said. "The problem with design-build in this corridor is you have so many (involved) parties."

Mazzo agreed there were third-party impacts, but argues they were less under a design-build situation than they would have been otherwise.

"The (design-build) process probably mitigated what otherwise would have been much worse impacts to the project schedule," he said. "The ability to remain flexible and develop work-arounds for delays/changes is probably the greatest plus of (design-build) for this project."

There is no disagreement as to the quality of work performed to date, though.

"That's one thing we feel comfortable with," Mazza said. "This contractor does quality work, and the quality's been there."

There's still plenty of work left to do, and Mazzo said there will not be any more underestimating of the remaining workload. "It will be a challenge until the end," he added.