VTA ditches San Jose BART extension tunnel contractor whose estimate was double the budget

The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority on Friday severed ties with its tunnel contractor for the San Jose BART extension a move that transit administrators assert won t impact the project s overall schedule The decision unanimously reached by the Board of Directors comes as VTA the agency tasked with building the six-mile four-station BART line from the Berryessa Transit Center in North San Jose through downtown and to Santa Clara is rushing to close a million to billion funding gap A review of the project has produced million in cost savings so far with more ideas expected to be reviewed this summer VTA officers made the recommendation to ditch Kiewit Shea Traylor KST a joint venture of three international construction firms earlier this month citing an inability to reach an agreed upon price for the second phase of work The contract s scope of work includes the single bore tunnel station entrances and exits the excavation of underground stations and the procurement of a tunnel boring machine The first stage was for design and preconstruction work while the second part is for the actual construction of the project KST s current contract is valued at million Construction equipment can be seen during a BART Silicon Valley Phase II Project tour at the future site of the Newhall Yard and Maintenance Facility in San Jose Calif on Monday June Nhat V Meyer Bay Area News Group Construction equipment can be seen during a BART Silicon Valley Phase II Project tour at the future site of the Newhall Yard and Maintenance Facility in San Jose Calif on Monday June Nhat V Meyer Bay Area News Group Construction worker walks past a soundwall during a BART Silicon Valley Phase II Project tour at the future site of the Newhall Yard and Maintenance Facility in San Jose Calif on Monday June Nhat V Meyer Bay Area News Group Construction workers are seen at work during a BART Silicon Valley Phase II Project tour at the future site of the Newhall Yard and Maintenance Facility in San Jose Calif on Monday June Nhat V Meyer Bay Area News Group Show Caption of Construction equipment can be seen during a BART Silicon Valley Phase II Project tour at the future site of the Newhall Yard and Maintenance Facility in San Jose Calif on Monday June Nhat V Meyer Bay Area News Group Expand In our efforts to move from stage one to stage two we ve reached an impasse that we don t think is bridgeable between what we think the right price for the tunnel project should be and what our partner KST thinks it should be Tom Maguire the agency s chief megaprojects delivery officer reported the board on Friday VTA executives previously mentioned that KST s estimate is more than twice of what they ve budgeted The agency hasn t circulated the numbers but reported in a news release on Friday that it significantly exceeded project budget limits VTA already had discussions with major tunneling contractors which led them to believe they can get a price more aligned with the budget Finding a new contractor will add at least months though it could be as a great number of as months to the timeline for when tunneling work can begin However leaders reported they are still on track for a opening date as they plan to save time in other methods Cost increases and time delays have long plagued the San Jose BART extension Original cost estimates were in the billion range and the initial opening date was slated for Last year federal transit leaders upped the cost estimate once again this time by million for a total project cost of million Certain directors including San Jose Councilmember David Cohen expressed concerns on Friday about the project s overall schedule given the delay to tunneling I m a little skeptical of this argument because we had been talking all along about how tunneling is the critical path Cohen disclosed So to delay the critical path and then say we re going to find procedures to shave time off just makes me wonder how we ve been approaching this so far Maguire reported that while the tunnel ultimately controls the schedule and the budget they are looking at strategies in which we can overlap construction paths One of the cost saving proposals right now on the table is to tunnel concurrently from both the east and the west Santa Clara Councilmember Suds Jain questioned why it took the agency so long to make the recommendation as VTA and KST have been in price negotiations for nearly a year It just doesn t make any sense to me when we re being reported that it is million a month for every delay that we have he reported In response Maguire disclosed that they needed to come back with more information about what comes after they cut ties with KST The joint venture is expected to continue its preconstruction work and complete the design of the project But with the agency looking at certain redesigns as part of its cost savings effort Jain raised concerns as to why they would want KST to complete its own design work which assumes a -foot-in-diameter tunnel Various of the changes being proposed would alter the size of the tunnel It makes zero sense to me when we can t fund this project for KST to continue designing something that we can t fund Jain reported Maguire noted that as KST is walking out the door we should get a work product we can bid out in episode there is any possibility of moving forward with a foot tunnel