Changes Ahead for Dallas' Light Rail

DART Working to Stay on Track

By Lesley Hensell

Gridlock is a word all too familiar to Dallas-area commuters. The word is also the impetus behind the $2.5 billion expansion of Dallas Area Rapid Transit's light-rail system.

But the larger the light-rail system becomes, and the more construction that is planned, the more DART risks becoming mired in gridlock of its own. DART has developed decades-long timelines and multibillion-dollar budgets for its planned expansion, which will nearly double the system's miles of track. And it will take more than a little time and money to get DART to its destination.

As problems began cropping up in the first phase of DART's Northwest Corridor expansion, one of two major projects on tap, DART moved quickly to change its construction management process.

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Miles and Miles

DART's planned expansion includes two major lines. The first, the Northwest Corridor, will run 23 mi. over two branches and will include 19 stations. The first branch will be an extension from the West End Station in Downtown Dallas, heading north along Harry Hines Boulevard on the former path of the Union Pacific Railroad, through Dallas and Farmers Branch to Frankfort Road in Carrollton.

The second branch will extend from the planned Bachman Station in Northwest Dallas to Las Colinas in Irving and, finally, to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Segments of the $1.5 billion project will begin opening about 2010, said Morgan Lyons, spokesman for DART.

At the same time, the 10-mi., $1 billion Southeast Corridor rail line will be built out to connect the Pleasant Grove area of Dallas with the existing Pearl Station downtown. This contract will include a 2.3-mi. section of the Northwest Corridor. The Southeast extension is expected to be complete in 2013.

"We anticipate that by fall or winter of next year, the dirt will be flying and we should be moving in a positive direction," said Timothy McKay, senior vice president of project management for DART.

Victory at Last

The first segment of the Northwest Corridor recently reached substantial completion. It runs from West End Station to Victory Station, which serves American Airlines Center. The $26 million project launched in June 2002 and was originally scheduled for completion in January 2004.

Just 1.7 mi. in length, the segment offers a case study into the challenges of light-rail construction. It also presents the real possibility that DART's 10-year construction goals may well be a fantasy.

The project was planned in detail far in advance, with six key milestones tied to different geographic locations of the track, said Kurt Grier, project manager for Martin K. Eby Construction, the contractor on the segment. Eby handled the project from its Bedford office.

"The problem with this kind of project is that it's a very linear process," Grier said. "It's hard to gain days when you run into weather or mandated change orders by the owner. On most jobs, you can figure out ways to go down two paths at once to trim the schedule. But not on this."

When bidding out the project, DART said that the contractor would be constructing the guideway on medium clay. And Martin K. Eby based its bid on that information, Grier said.

"This was anything but medium clay we were working on," he added. "We found rebar in gigantic wads wound up like spaghetti. We hit a foundation the size of a car. And we found bathtubs, gravel and uncompacted soil."

Grier suspects that a portion of the construction site used to be an old rail switchyard, while another area may have been a dump.

"At one site, we were drilling in anchors and hit a void," he said. "We were never able to retrieve our screw. And this was under the existing guideway. We ran into so much material that was not as noted on the geotechnical reports."

Each time the team faced unusual conditions under the ground, the project came to a halt.

"We had to put the owner on notice and go back to the engineers for a redesign," Grier said. "Sometimes we had to totally excavate to the depth of a pier and backfill with decent dirt. Or we had to change to a footing-and-column foundation instead of a pier. It totally changed the design of the structure."

Another challenge was the continual flow of train traffic through the worksite. About 70 trains a day, including commercial haulers and the diesel commuter Trinity Railway Express, flew through the jobsite each day at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour, Grier said.

"We would have to shut down work before they were allowed to pass through the jobsite," he added. "All crews had to get 25 ft. or more away from the tracks. At the project's peak, we had 150 people onsite. And considering most of it was track work and guideway work, most people were within the foul zone.

"When you've got 150 men sitting on their butts waiting for a train to go by, you run through money really fast."

Between delays and exceptions, Martin K. Eby went far over budget. Currently, project managers are creating exception reports to submit to DART.

"Even if you run into change orders during construction, you have to move on with the project and negotiate at a later date," Grier said. "That's what we're doing right now."

A New Approach

These challenges are one reason DART is adopting a new construction process for the next phases of the project. Rather than hiring a contractor at the outset of construction, DART will bring a construction-manager/general-contractor-at-risk on board during the design process.

"In prior phases, we would give the contractors a set of 1,800 drawings and two big volumes of spec books," McKay said. "Then we would say, 'You've got 45 days to give us a firm price.' There were some very good contractors who could do that, but it didn't work really well."

By bringing on a CM/GC during the preliminary engineering stage, DART hopes to eliminate the number of changes and obstacles that arise during construction.

"We want to bring the contractor in early to work with the design team and get him acclimated to the project," McKay said. "That way, we'll establish a true partnership upfront. If we spend a little more effort up front, we hope that once we start building we can eliminate changes and arguments over pricing."

The GM/GC, which will be chosen some time this fall, will be given a guaranteed maximum price. "This is kind of like cost-plus, but with a ceiling," McKay said.

To choose the GM/GC, DART will take a best-value approach, he said. Each bidder will be evaluated on three criteria: technical abilities, including the project approach and game plan for execution; past performance, determined by questionnaires sent to reference organizations; and price, including reasonableness and completeness.

"We're not necessarily going for the lowest bidder," McKay said. "We want to negotiate the best-value contract using a competitive solicitation process to get there."

When DART first began operating its light-rail service in 1996, it was on time and on budget, Lyons said. The first expansion opened under budget and six months ahead of schedule, he added.

"We're used to having very aggressive and challenging construction schedules," he said. "But we want to do even better."