Working with New York City’s 10-year, $160 billion-plus capital plan will require a holistic approach, according to Alison Landry, Director of Infrastructure, Office of the Deputy Mayor.
In a statement at ENR’s NYNJ Infrastructure Forum held Sept. 16 in New York City, Landry emphasized the idea of a “whole project” in which all of the city’s infrastructure is intertwined. “We’re thinking of these systems as the metabolism of our city, all the things that hold it together and help people get through their day without having to think too much,” he said.
Landry noted that there are 300,000 streetlights in the city “and each of them has bits and pieces that somebody has to maintain, components that people have to track on a system scale, things that have to be designed, things that need to be replaced, etc. things that need to work together.”
Although the city maintains 800 bridges, “what about Amtrak? What about the state DOT? What about the port? There are so many different players here … there’s a whole interrelated metabolism with all these other public owners.”
He added: “Each of us has a small piece to play in this puzzle, but it all comes together, and that’s what helps us make sure people have their needs met in our city. And really we need all hands on deck, because there’s a lot of work to be done.”
In the city’s 10-year capital plan of more than $160 billion, the projects are aimed not only at redundancy in the event of a crisis, but also at serving multiple functions. A new pedestrian bridge is not only ADA compliant, but also provides access to new sports facilities and parks. “Last week we opened a new playground in the Bronx that’s a cloudburst. So it absorbs 800,000 gallons of stormwater annually…so it’s all part of the same ecosystem where things do more than one function , and we’re really getting that higher performance from our work.”
Resilience, one of the forum’s main themes, “is built into all the projects we’re doing today,” he said. “We’re starting to think about more extreme weather, things like heat and heavy rain,” Landry said. “We know we’re in a housing crisis. This is being talked about at all levels of government, and there are so many tools that the city is using to deal with this housing crisis. But in support of ‘that, we need to build infrastructure… it’s not just about addressing known deficiencies or chronic issues like flooding or capacity, but also thinking about future growth and demand as certain neighborhoods experience population change’ .
Alternative project delivery wins fans in New York
Eric McFarlane, first deputy commissioner of the New York City Department of Design and Construction, detailed the agency’s plans to deliver projects better, faster and cheaper by reforming the capital delivery process with partners of the city and industry.
The agency responsible for more than $30 billion in capital construction is testing a program that allows the agency to further expand its use of design-build, which requires state permitting for each project. But the 23 design-build projects in the agency’s current portfolio are mostly non-infrastructure projects because McFarlane says the deployment of design-build in the infrastructure sector is still “difficult” given that determining the full scope of a project before it starts is difficult. “It’s hard to know what’s under the street with great accuracy,” McFarlane said. “Having someone design and build and give me a maximum price guarantee up front is almost impossible.”
DDC selected five infrastructure projects valued between $5 million and $90 million for a phased design and build pilot program. Phased projects allow teams to determine a more accurate project scope “before we put a price on the project,” McFarlane said.
He also said the pilot is helping train staff at DDC, other city agencies and industry partners who have been entrenched in the design-bid-build mentality for decades. “This requires a real change of mindset in the way we approach things,” McFarlane said.
The agency, named the 2023 New York ENR Owner of the Year, has also been pushing state lawmakers to act on recommendations offered by the capital process reform task force launched by Mayor Eric Adams, including to transform the DDC from a city agency into a state authority, allowing to completely renew its procurement rules.
“If we became an authority we would have more flexibility,” McFarlane said. “That’s a long shot, but we’re still trying to pursue it.”
DDC also hopes that Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) will extend the “joint offer” law that was established in December. If the sunset is not extended, the city will lose its authority to use joint bidding. DDC said bidding street, water and sewer infrastructure projects with gas, electric and communications utilities sharing under-street space under a single contract shaves years off project schedules.
“All we’re trying to do is basically build a project faster,” McFarlane said.
Another pilot program that streamlines change orders also aims to help the agency build faster. Place a clause in project contracts that provides extended work compensation that covers the most common types of change orders. McFarlane said the most common types of change orders are predictable because they occur in areas where “we don’t have complete information.”
Pilot projects set aside money to pay at least 80% of the trade order immediately, “while we negotiate the final amount…and we also put early termination incentives in our contract to make all of this easier for us the construction and it makes sure that sellers don’t suffer financially,” he said.
Historically, capital project change orders take nine months to resolve, “absolutely absurd,” McFarlane said. “What this does is [it makes it so] Only construction companies that have financial income can work with the city.”
The department is also working on a five-year project to better manage and execute projects in its portfolio.
“One of the key priorities of the plan is to improve coastal resilience and protect the city from the impact of climate change,” McFarlane said. “DDC also works with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection and other partners to implement best management practices for stormwater management, shoreline stabilization, wetland restoration and flood mitigation.”
He said DDC has “a significant amount of work to do and I hope it inspires the next generation of engineers and architects to pursue their passions and continue the work.”
