The city-parish has selected the first round of firms to do engineering design work on projects that are part of MovEBR. Among those selected is Sigma Consulting, an engineering firm that is also doing program management work for half of the $1 billion road improvement program.
It’s a situation that has some in the local engineering and consulting community privately raising questions, but it’s perfectly legal. That’s because the city-parish last year decided to split program management duties between two teams—one led by CSRS, the other by Stantec. As city officials confirmed last week, program management subcontractors are permitted to bid on projects that will be managed by the other team—just not on the jobs their own team is managing.
Sigma is a subcontractor on the Stantec team, which will be managing “enhancement projects” like sidewalks and bike paths, while the CSRS team is managing “capacity projects” to expand existing roads.
Though final contracts still have to be negotiated, the parish Engineers Selection Board selected the following four firms to begin engineering designs on the capacity projects:
• College Drive corridor enhancement: AECOM
• Groom Road: PEC (Professional Engineering Consultants Corporation)
• Bluebonnet Boulevard: G.E.C. Inc.
• Jones Creek Road: Sigma Consulting Group Inc.
Sigma is the first program management subcontractor to submit a proposal for the other side of the MovEBR project list.
Negotiations still have to take place with the Department of Transportation and Drainage before a final contract is issued. No pricing or bidding was involved in this first qualification process, city officials say.
