Met Council awards last major construction contract for project

The Metropolitan Council today awarded PCL Construction Services Inc. of Burnsville, Minn., a $43.1 million contract to convert a vacant former factory in St. Paul into the operations and maintenance facility for the Central Corridor LRT Project.

The contract includes $1.2 million for PCL to install a vehicle hoist at the Hiawatha LRT's Franklin facility, a betterment requested and funded by Metro Transit. It also includes work necessary for systems testing by the summer of 2013 in order to maintain the start of revenue service in 2014 and avoid a construction delay and cost escalation impacts. PCL's bid includes $41.9 million of Central Corridor project expense (including up to $1.2 million in sales tax), compared with the operations and maintenance facility project budget of $45.8 million.

This is the last major construction contract award for the project. Of the $590 million worth of construction and LRV contract awards including the operations facility, the project has experienced a cumulative underrun of $34 million.

The Disadvantaged Business Enterprise goal for this contract was 15 percent. PCL, the lowest responsive and responsible bidder, reported a DBE participation of about 6 percent but passed the DBE evaluation based on participation and documentation of good-faith efforts. None of the other bidders met the 15 percent goal either.

The Met Council also authorized the regional administrator to issue a Limited Notice to Proceed in an amount of $1.6 million. Award of the contract and issuance of the notice will proceed immediately due to receipt of the Federal Transit Administration Letter of No Prejudice (LONP) last week.

Sufficient funding commitment from local sources is available to award the construction contract under the LONP. The LONP ensures the eligibility of these expenditures for federal funding reimbursement upon execution of the Full Funding Grant Agreement expected in the first quarter of 2011. The FTA and local funding partners support the operation and maintenance facility package, the contract award under the Letter of No Prejudice and issuance of the Limited Notice to Proceed.

In other Central Corridor LRT construction news, Carl Bolander & Sons substantially completed utility relocation and road construction in November on Fourth Street in downtown St. Paul. Temporary two-way traffic was restored. Work to lay the tracks, build stations and install the electrical and communication systems will occur in 2011-2012.

Walsh Construction began work after Labor Day east of the state Capitol on Robert and 12th streets north of Interstate 94. Most of the heavy construction by Walsh on University Avenue will occur in 2011 between Emerald Street and Hamline Avenue and in 2012 between Hamline and Robert.

Ames-McCrossan, a joint venture, began prep work last week to retrofit the Washington Avenue Bridge to accommodate LRT trains by strengthening the bridge piers. This work will not affect vehicular or pedestrian/bicycle traffic on the bridge during the fall 2010 semester. The bulk of the construction on the Minneapolis segment will start in spring 2011.