MBTA pads rail car contract with $4M amendment
Courtesy MBTA
The rail cars are being refurbished.
With a $4 million contract extension to handle inspections of refurbished trolley cars, the MBTA has agreed to pay a total of $21 million for consultants assisting with limited overhauls of Red and Green Line cars built in the 1980s.
The "selective systems overhaul" is somewhat short of a complete overhaul and is the only such overhaul for the trolleys that entered service in 1986 and 1987, according to the T.
CH2M is providing consulting and contractor Alstom is performing work on the Green Line cars in Hornell, N.Y., according to William Wolfgang, the T's director of vehicle engineering who in an interview with the News Service disputed an earlier assertion made by the head of the Boston Carmen's Union that the contract with Alstom is a "disaster."
Wolfgang said the trolleys receiving new and repaired equipment are the oldest on the Green Line.
"It's like getting into a brand new vehicle," MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo, a regular Green Line rider, told the News Service. Pesaturo said the stairs on the cars are the giveaways that they are older models.
MBTA employees are handling the work of replacing parts in the Red Line cars, with oversight by CH2M, Wolfgang said.
The scope and cost of the contract with CH2M has ballooned since the T first came to agreement with the company in 2007 for assessment and scope recommendations at a $1.6 million price tag.
"I can certainly say that I don't necessarily think that it's the right approach for us to take in the future - as it relates to authorizing these individual tasks," MBTA Chief Operating Officer Jeff Gonneville said about the contract.
He said the contract amendment, which was approved by the board, was the "last amendment" to the contract.
MBTA Fiscal and Management Control Board Chairman Joseph Aiello pushed for assurance that the T could switch to a different firm if it receives dissatisfactory information about the consultant's work.
The Green Line has received 35 cars back out of a total of 103 on the contract, according to T officials, who said the Red Line work on 58 cars is nearly complete.
Gonneville said the cars are past their usual service life and would ordinarily have already received a midlife overhaul.
Workers discovered asbestos in the old Green Line cars but there was not a risk to passengers because there was "nothing airborne," Wolfgang told the News Service.
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