UPDATE: Design–build bids are in for $2B Green Line extension

UPDATE: Three shortlisted design–build teams have submitted bids for the $2.3 billion Green Line rail extension (GLX), in the Boston area, according to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA). The GLX Project Management Team will announce the winner on Dec. 11, 2017, ahead of the original date of Feb. 9, 2018.

Dive Brief:

In February, the MBTA announced a shortlist of three contracting teams to bid on the reboot of the troubled rail project, according to MassLive. The MBTA issued a formal request for proposals in May.
The three joint ventures include companies that have vast experience with infrastructure projects.
The teams are: GLX Constructors (including Fluor Enterprises, The Middlesex Corporation, Herzog Contracting Corp., Balfour Beatty Infrastructure); Green Line Partners (including The Lane Construction Corporation, Salini Impregilo, Judlau Contracting, LMH-C.M.C. di Ravenna Joint Venture); and Walsh Barletta Granite JV (including Walsh Construction Company II, Barletta Heavy Division, Granite Construction).

Dive Insight:

The project has been stalled since December 2015, when the MBTA fired the team of White-Skanska-Kiewit after delays and projected cost overruns of almost $1 billion. A third-party inquiry found MBTA mismanagement played a significant role in the debacle as well.

The MBTA said the former guaranteed maximum price delivery method was vulnerable to budget excesses, so officials decided to go with design–build this time around. The MBTA also redesigned the project to cost approximately $620 million less than the original. It now anticipates its new in-service date will be sometime in 2021, which will mark a four-year delay.

Last November, the MBTA announced it had brought on an experienced manager, John Dalton, to lead the project's construction management team. His hiring was part of an effort to demonstrate to the Federal Transit Administration — which will award a $1 billion project grant — that the light rail is still viable.

In the time since the design–build RFP was issued, however, the MBTA cancelled a $57 million construction management contract awarded to CH2M Hill due to a conflict of interest with its new owner, Jacobs Engineering. The latter company, which joined the Walsh Barletta Granite JV for the design–build bid, bought CH2M for $2.85 billion in August.