Keeping Your Transit Project on Track

By Stephen Roth

How can a large-scale public transportation project be successfully managed? A case study of one Central Texas transit program offers insights that can be applied universally.

Stephen Roth is technical services manager on the program management team in the Austin office of Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam Inc.

Publicly funded projects often include challenging stakeholder expectations and budget and schedule constraints. The “All Systems Go” long-range transit program in Austin offers several solutions to manage such challenges.
Within “All System Go,” Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority is expanding local and express bus service, adding new park-and-ride facilities, and developing a new commuter-rail line from Leander to downtown Austin. The new rail service, Capital MetroRail, is the first phase of a broader commuter-rail network planned for Central Texas.

Form the strongest team possible. To successfully implement a complex program, managers should create a team structure that crosses traditional organizational boundaries and optimizes available talent. Consultants and owners should interact as a team in every aspect of the project rather than functioning independently in specific areas. Often, owners hire program managers to control specific project elements such as facilities design with the consultants reporting their progress back to the owner. This structure increases the likelihood of misalignment between the various project elements.

LAN and Capital Metro professionals work together daily. The project involves major initiatives such as design and construction of facilities, design and assembly of rail vehicles, operations and maintenance planning and project controls. Accordingly, LAN provides nine full-time staff members to augment and support Capital Metro staff. These members assume assigned roles across the initiatives and provide technical and managerial expertise in every aspect of the program. This approach increases the value added to the project and allows Capital Metro to obtain resources in a timely fashion.

Traditionally, contractors bid for procurement of materials and installation services under a single contract. For the “All Systems Go” program, Capital Metro and LAN professionals are creating smaller construction contracts to achieve small business utilization and encourage competition among prospective bidders.

For example, the signaling system, one of the largest components of the project, was divided into four contracts, two for signal materials and two for signal installation. This partitioning enables smaller, financially constrained contractors to participate, increasing competition and potentially achieving better pricing and performance.

The results so far are promising: the project remains on budget while exceeding the goals of Capital Metro’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program.

Introduce something new and exciting. Transit projects seek to attract passengers with safe, comfortable and efficient service. One vital step in achieving this goal is selecting the appropriate vehicle technology.

For the Capital MetroRail project, Capital Metro wanted a vehicle with excellent braking and acceleration performance that could negotiate tight curvatures in city streets, which would make it ideal for use in urban and suburban environments. To achieve these objectives, the project team selected a bi-directional Diesel Multiple Unit vehicle that maximizes safety and comfort.

The selected DMU vehicle is the most technologically advanced design available. Each vehicle has a capacity of 200 passengers, as well as ample room for wheelchairs and bicycles. Perhaps the most progressive feature of the design is its compliance with the 2007 European Crash Energy Management standards. The CEM concept is based on protecting operators and passengers through controlled deformation in non-occupied areas of the car.

Help your client deliver their commitments. Program management consultants must understand the stakeholder issues that will affect project success. The client’s ability to deliver on constituent commitments is critical to the current project and future initiatives.

Capital Metro positioned Capital MetroRail as a rapidly deployable, relatively inexpensive starter system to introduce rail transit to Central Texas and set the stage for possible future rail projects. It committed to delivering the program within tight schedule and budget constraints. As the project has progressed, however, the realities of increasing construction costs and unanticipated requirements have presented unique management challenges.

In response, program managers are maintaining a sharp focus on project costs and timelines while exploring opportunities to reduce both elements. LAN and Capital Metro staffs are collaborating on value engineering analysis, strategic procurement and parallel design to provide the safe and efficient system Central Texans deserve within the parameters they expect.