Tracking Light Rail
Less Than 1,000 Days Until Completion

By Scott Blair

Progress is being made on nearly every facet of light rail construction throughout the Phoenix area as crews from multiple contractors descend on some of the Valley's most-used arterials. The 20-mile initial route will connect central Phoenix with the East Valley, with a planned completion in late 2008.

advertisement

The project was separated into a variety of packages which were competitively bid out by Valley Metro Rail, Inc., the public corporation charged with overseeing the project.

The rail lines were bid in five sections that were an average of 4-mi. in length, while station finishes, overhead power lines, bridges and a maintenance facility were also submitted as separate bid packages.

Each section was designed through subconsultants working under a general engineering consultant, a partnership of Parsons Brinckerhoff as the prime consultant and Gannett Fleming and URS Corporation as partners.

"We ended up with 64 subconsultants with a prime subconsultant managing each of the line segments," said Patrick Fuller, project manager for Parsons Brinckerhoff.

"Trying to keep some continuity and standards in the design, especially having each section designed by separate subconsultants, was very critical." Extensive review cycles and a design criteria manual helped keep the design cohesive.

The first order of business for construction teams on each line was to perform utility relocation and street demolition. However, to relocate utilities they first had to find them. "There was a pretty significant potholing program, but you have to know where look," said Bob Fouty, project manager for Archer Western Contractors, the contractor for Line Section 3. "But that doesn't help you with completely unrecorded utilities."

Running from McDowell Rd. through downtown to 26th St. the line section is one of the most complex with two one-way tracks running down Central and 1st avenues and then curving onto Washington and Jefferson streets.

"The Underground and utility work is delaying us, but they aren't catastrophic delays," Fouty said. "They are the type that happen more frequently in a highly urbanized environment such as this." Crews are working extra hours to prevent any delays from affecting the overall project delivery, which is currently around 20 percent complete.

As crews open up streets and sidewalks, they are sometimes surprised at what they find. "Coal shoots for one," Fouty said. "Many old buildings downtown were heated by coal and even had their own generating systems back when commercial power wasn't as reliable as it is today. When they stopped using coal for that, they simply capped over the top of them and forgot them."

Often all that's left is a void which must be filled with aggregate or concrete to prevent costly delays. "10 yds. of concrete is around $1,000, but a day of lost labor is more like $50,000," Fouty added. "You need to have a good, well-developed plan for your work, but any plan that isn't capable of being adaptable to changing circumstances, isn't much of a plan."

Once the utility lines are moved or encased in concrete to withstand the loading of the rail cars, each of the existing streets will be widened to accommodate the rail track.

The system uses embedded track exclusively, which sits flush inside a concrete slab.

"The concrete slab is a varying width, with a minimum of 15-ft. and some areas as wide as 18-ft.," Fouty said. "The thickness is pretty standard at 13-in., with two levels of reinforcing."

Each of the 27 station foundations will also be poured by the line section contractors, but the station finishes will be done later by Archer Western under a separate contract.

The team of Sundt/ Stacy & Witbeck Joint Venture was awarded two line sections and the $58 million Maintenance and Storage Facility, which will be completed earlier than the rest of the light rail project to allow for testing of the rail cars and track.

The light rail alignment on the east end of Sundt/ Stacy & Witbeck's Line Section 5 travels down the center of McClintock Dr. One major milestone will be the reconstruction of the bridge that passes over the 101 Loop between Tempe and Mesa.

"The existing bridge wasn't wide enough to handle both the lanes of traffic and the light rail trains, so we are building two new pedestrian bridges on both sides, each 6-ft. wide," said John Zehner, project manager with Stacy & Witbeck, a Cali.-based contractor specializing in light rail construction. "We can then take the existing sidewalks and put them on the new bridges, and then move the auto traffic to the old sidewalk area. Then we'll tear out the center of the bridge and reconstruct it with a stronger section, so it's really three different bridges."

Crews will be building the bridge on false work three ft. above its final position, allowing clearance for freeway traffic. "Once the superstructure is built up in the air, we will brace it, remove the false work and then lower the bridge into place," Zehner said.

"It's a long sequence using a series of shims, steel plates and 200-tn. hydraulic jacks to lower it a half-in. at a time."

The bridge will rest upon abutments and piers that crews previously built. Zehner expects up to 10 weekend freeway closures on the 101 to complete the bridge in 12 to 15 months.

The line section also passes through downtown Tempe, where construction can be challenging due to the high volume of pedestrian and vehicular traffic of Arizona State University and frequent events such as games and concerts.

Valley Metro installed a community feedback system dubbed the Community Advisory Board, a concept borrowed from the Salt Lake City light rail project where it was used successfully.

"The members of the advisory board either own businesses or live along the alignment, so they are direct stakeholders in the project," said Rick Simonetta,
CEO of Valley Metro Rail, Inc. "They meet with the contractor every month to go through everything from schedules to concerns that some of the stakeholders might have. It creates a very dynamic communication channel that has been very helpful to both the contractors and the community."

"Contractors can receive monthly bonuses based upon compliments and positive feedback from local businesses through the community advisory boards," said Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, a member of the board of directors for Valley Metro.

Each contractor employs liaisons to notify the community on utility shutdowns, traffic changes and to receive feedback.

However, it isn't only the living that can hinder a jobsite.

There is the potential to find significant archeological discoveries along the light rail alignment. "We've found Native American burial sites, pottery and floors from homes so you need to bring in the archeologists to record everything they find and preserve it," Simonetta said. "Human remains have to be properly disposed of, consistent with the culture of Native American tribes in the area."

Even though there are six major contractors working on the various light rail projects, Valley Metro encourages companies that are usually in competition with each other to work together through a program called "cross-partnering". "It is a program that is new for me, where all the various contractors sit in a room along with Valley Metro to talk about construction issues and problems," said Patrick Gray, project manager at St. Joseph, Mo.-based Herzog Contracting Corp. for Line Section 2, covering McDowell to Camelback roads. "I talk to Archer Western and Kiewit (the contractor on Line Section 1) on my own, but this is a group to hear the ideas and solutions that one segment has done, so you can possibly use it on your own section."

Herzog's line section is aligned down Central Ave., "We can't put the track in the middle of the road until we widen Central in most places, so we tear out one side at a time, widen it, put the traffic over the new part and go to the next side," Gray said.

Where stations are located, the roadway must be widened as much as 11-ft., which will require the removal of historic palm trees. "It's a big undertaking with as many as 400 huge trees," Gray said. "As you can imagine, there are people that identify with their trees and want them put back right where they came from. It may not be the same exact tree, but we are replacing in-kind and making every attempt to put them in the same area."

After the final bid package is released for six Park 'n Ride lots along the alignment, Valley Metro will turn to the design and development of new light rail alignments. "We are also investigating whether we can use alternative delivery methods on the future extensions," Simonetta said. "Design build and CM at risk are specifically the way we want to go in the future, so it would be a matter of determining the legality of that."

 
Click here for Next Mass Transit Feature>>