Contract C-26008

Recently, the bid results for the contract covering the second phase of the 86th Street station construction were made public - and here are the results.

Bid/Contract Number: C-26008 (also known as Contract 5B)
86th Street Cavern Mining & Heavy Civil Works

Vendor Name - Bid Amount
1. Skanska/Traylor JV - $301,860,000
2. Conti/J.H. Reid JV - $334,777,433
3. Shea/Kiewit/Schiavone - $391,717,426
4. Barnard/Judlau JV - $453,631,980
5. Granite/Yonkers/SK JV - $460,443,000

A source told me that MTA's engineers expected the bids for this contract to come in at around $400 million. As such, the MTA surely must be pleased that the competitive bidding process for this contract produced such a good bid.

The joint venture partners for the low bid are Skanska and Traylor Brothers, two major players in the market for civil engineering construction and infrastructure projects. Skanska already has extensive experience working on this project, as one of the three contractors building the SAS tunnels and launch box structure.

Contract C-26008 includes, among other things:
- mining of the 86th Street station cavern as well as mine shafts and adits for the entrances, ancillaries and cross passages;
- building demolition work at 83rd and 86th streets in advance of work on the construction of entrances and ancillaries;
- underpinning of existing buildings adjacent to the ancillaries and
Entrance 1;
- the construction of the permanent structure from station invert level to the top of ground level;
- restoration of the surface of Second Avenue and cross streets which will also include the restoration of roads, sidewalks, and soft and hard landscaping.

Further contract details can be found on this link to the MTA's Invitation For Bid Notice.

At the last meeting of the CB8 Second Avenue Subway Task Force, the MTA said that they expect to award this contract in April or May 2011 with construction to start sometime during the summer.

The MTA's Capital Program Dashboard, on the MTA's website, shows that a total of $325,643,165 is currently allocated for this particular contract:
2005-2009 Capital Program - Current Budget - $47,033,768
2010-2014 Capital Program - Current Budget - $278,609,397

What is not clear at the moment is (a) where all of the money for this contract will come from, since only the first two years of the 2010-2014 Capital Program are currently funded, and (b) how the recent lawsuit (to block the planned construction of station entrances on the north side of 86th Street - Yorkshire Towers LP vs. DOT et al) will affect this contract.

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In other news, a group of students from Hunter College Department of Urban Affairs and Planning is working on a project, together with Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney's office, to examine the subway construction on Second Avenue. The research will include the subway construction's impact on the community, lessons learned, etc.

The students are interviewing key figures involved in the project, and have already conducted one-on-one interviews with representatives of the Community Board 8 Second Avenue Subway Task Force, the MTA, Second Avenue Business Association and local senior centers.

They are also asking members of the community to take a few moments to fill out a short online survey so that they can gain additional insight in to the project.

A direct link to the survey can be found on this web link:
Hunter College Second Avenue Subway Survey

Please note that the deadline for participating in the survey is
Friday, March 18th.

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This just in:
Mining of the east tunnel (i.e. TBM Run No. 2) is expected to commence during the last few days of March 2011.