The Gateway Development Commission selected MPA Delivery Partners as the delivery partner for the $16 billion Hudson Tunnel project to create a new rail tunnel between northern New Jersey and New York City. MPA is a joint venture of Mace North America Ltd., Parsons Corp. and Arcadis of New York Inc.
Gateway’s board of commissioners voted unanimously on Feb. 28 to authorize the award of the contract to MPA. As the project delivery partner, MPA will provide Gateway with project management services including interface risk management, cost and schedule assurance, safety and quality management, as well as innovation and value engineering, according to the commission.
Kris Kolluri, CEO of Gateway, said the contract is important to meet the Federal Transit Administration’s technical capability requirements, as well as ensure Gateway has access to industry expertise.
“It is critical to ensure that we have access to the right human capital to execute this project in the most efficient and cost-effective manner,” he said during the meeting.
The board also authorized MPA to proceed with $26.8 million in Phase A task orders through September. The nine task orders include work such as managing the construction of the Hudson River Soil Stabilization Project, which is needed for a portion of the river before the tunnel.
Gateway then plans to award Phase B task orders to MPA through 2030 with the option to extend the deadline for three-year extensions up to three times. The award will require further approval by the Gateway board.
Work on the 4.5 miles of track and the two-tube tunnel is scheduled to be completed by 2035. After that, Gateway plans to rehabilitate the existing North River Tunnels. The rehabilitation work is scheduled to end in 2038.
Gateway was formed in conjunction with officials from New York and New Jersey to lead the multi-jurisdictional tunnel project and other rail infrastructure improvements along the Northeast Corridor between Newark, NJ and Penn Station in Manhattan.
The delivery partner method has been successfully used in major projects overseas, such as the London 2012 Olympic Games. In a joint statement, Gateway curators Alicia Glen, Balpreet Grewal-Virk and Tony Coscia, they said that MPA “will be the arms and legs that enable [Gateway] to continue to move this project forward at high speed as we prepare to begin heavy construction.”
MPA brings previous experience working on other projects with the delivery partner model. Mace Group worked on the 2012 Olympics project, along with other companies such as CH2M Hill, where Priya Jain, president of Mace Americas, was working at the time. Mace is also working as part of a consortium of delivery partners for a Metrolinx subway project in Ontario, Canada, and on school and hospital projects in Peru. Jain says the model is “all about setting the culture, behavior and training the right people” who can pick up the work and execute it.
“It’s about getting results,” he says. “We all work for companies with their own agendas, but at the end of the day, it’s an outcome we’re all moving towards.”
MPA is committed to exceeding Gateway’s 20.05% disadvantaged business enterprise target, according to a Gateway staff presentation at the meeting. To do this, Jain says the project team has already held DBE events and reached out to partners from previous projects. The key will be for partners to track their DBE participation progress as they progress and hold themselves accountable.
Kolluri said recruitment for the delivery partner began 18 months ago. Amtrak issued a request for qualifications on behalf of Gateway in late 2022. Gateway selected three teams last May. In addition to MPA, they included a joint venture between Bechtel and HNTB and Hudson Delivery Partnership, a team from Atkins North America Inc., Arup US Inc. and The McKissack Group Inc.
“This contract has been carefully calibrated,” Kolluri said. “And it also preserves total control in the contract and its execution with [Gateway] and the board.”
During the Feb. 28 meeting, Gateway’s board also voted to authorize agreements with New York State, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and New Jersey Transit for the local funding share that will allow the Gateway receive federal loans through the US Department. of the financing program for the improvement and rehabilitation of the transport railway. In a statement, Gateway said it expects to close the loans in the coming months. Mark Fialkowski, president of infrastructure for North America at Parsons, said in a statement that the team is ready to “unlock the full economic and social potential of the Hudson Tunnel project.”
Gateway has advanced other parts of the project recently. In early February, it awarded a contract to Weeks Marine Inc. for the Hudson River Soil Stabilization Project. Gateway has also shortlisted teams invited to submit tunnel proposals at the New Jersey and New York ends of the tunnel, and early work is underway on non-tunnel construction packages on both sides of the river.
This story has been updated with comments from the joint venture.
