The transport authority of the Santa Clara Valley (VTA) is ready to find a new contractor for the Bart Silicon Valley project Phase II (BSVII) to try to stabilize the 1 billion program budget and preserve a federal construction grant of $ 5.1 million.
The joint company of Kiewit Shea Taylor (KST) – Kiewit Infrastructure West, JF Shea Construction and Treylor Brothers – was selected by 2022 for the initial $ 235 million stage of progressive design design effort that aims to build a six -mile six -mile tunnel, four stations in the rapid area in Santa Clara through Santa Clara of a great diameter, a single-rid Jose.
On June 27, the VTA Board of Directors is expected to vote for a recommendation from the Agency’s Supervisory Committee to select a new tunnel contractor after receiving repeated proposals greater than double the project budget. In a statement, VTA officials said that KST “will complete the ongoing early work, including the construction of the tunnel portal, simultaneously, while the contract for the important tunnel construction goes to a new structure aligned with the VTA budget.”
At the time KST received the contract, the total cost of the project was calculated as a program of almost $ 7 million. Since then, it has doubled almost to almost $ 12.7 billion. Last autumn, VTA announced that an internal review had identified about $ 400 million in potential cost -saving concepts, including measures such as using less concrete and steel inside the tunnel, the reconfiguration of a new storage garden and the maintenance installation and refinement of stations designs.
However, VTA and KST could not agree a mutually acceptable price for the next stage of the project, which includes the tunnel, the excavation for underground stations and the work related to fulfilling the end date of 2037, which has been extended in six years. The income service is now expected to begin in February 2039.
After receiving what the Agency was characterized by a declaration of June 12 as, “ repeated proposals that have twice the budget of the project ”, the VTA project supervision committee recommended using an “ Offramp ” clause in the KST contract to initiate a new contract that “ will control the costs in the project and guarantee this critical piece of infrastructure in the budget and the budget.
It is not known what effect, if any, the proposed movement will have three separate BSVII design design contracts for trains/maintenance installation systems, storage garden or a ten -year construction management service contract of $ 490 million in Bechtel Infrastructure Corp. Last July.
VTA believes that the new hiring will promote “a robust tender process that will support the creation of jobs, in the discipline of the budget and technical innovation”, without delaying the project. The agency said that he has already held confidential consultations with “several nationally recognized tunnel contractors”. These companies, VTA’s statement, said, “expressed confidence in its ability to meet the project’s engineering requirements while aligning with the VTA budget framework, strengthening the agency’s strategy to control costs without compromising quality or security.”
“This approach guarantees that we gain the best value for taxpayers while at the same time achieving a sustainable future for the project,” said Tom Maguire, responsible for the delivery of Megaprojectes de Vta in the statement.
The project would add 6 miles and four stations to the fast traffic system in the bay area (Bart) that connected it to Vtas. About 5.5 miles from the extension would be a single -single tunnel and three of the seasons would be underground.
Map courtesy vta
The BSVII budget reign is also considered an essential step in completing the process of ensuring the subsidy of the Federal Federal Traffic Administration of $ 5.1, granted in August 2024. VTA officials have expressed uncertainty in local media stories on how the current state project will be considered by the Trump administration, especially in the current political environment. A fall in local sales tax revenue – a key component of the BSVII financing strategy – is pressing the agency’s budget of operations, with a recent presentation of the Board, which projects a deficit of 2027 $ 15 million and a long -term threat for agency reserves.
In the event that the VTA Board approved by executing the provision Offramp, KST will complete the work in the early phase that is already being carried out, including the construction of the launch moat in Santa Clara for a boring machine of Herrenknecht Tunnel 54 feet, which is expected to be delivered next year. Agency officials have told the local media that KST would have about $ 1 billion for their work.
“Our commitment is still safely and successfully our field of substantial work under contract and to support VTA, as it determines the best way to go,” said a KST in Enr spokesman. He characterized the use of outside the ramp clauses and decision -making points in progressive design construction contracts not as bad performance indicators, but as “safeguards that allow public agencies to adjust the course, if the budget, reach or other key factors are no longer aligned.”
The work of the first phase of KST, added the spokesman, “will provide a long -term value to the project, regardless of how delivery occurs. It helps reduce the risk, support future tender efforts and report on smarter decisions.”
The Bart Silicon Valley of Vta, $ 2.3 million, 10 -mile from the Bart Silicon Valley project in Vta, was opened for the passenger service in 2020. Designed and built by a joint company led by Bechtel, the project included two Bart stations incorporated into the new traffic centers in Milpitas and Berryssa/North San Jose.
