A city-parish selection committee will meet tonight to evaluate the only two teams that have submitted proposals to do the design and engineering work for TramLink BR, the three-mile modern streetcar line that is planned to run along Nicholson Drive between LSU and downtown.
In September, the city-parish issued a request for qualifications from firms interested in competing for the estimated $10 million contract. Two teams responded to the RFQ: one led by HNTB, the other by Aecom.
Both companies are engineering giants that have assembled experienced teams. HNTB’s team includes Stantec, Manning Architects of New Orleans, and SOJ, a project management consulting firm in Portland, Oregon, that helped develop that city’s modern streetcar line 15 years ago. HNTB and Stantec have previously worked for the city-parish on TramLinkBR during the environmental planning phase of the project, which was completed in July.
Aecom, which is one of the nation’s leading experts in mass transit projects, is partnering with Remson Haley Herpin Architects and Jeffrey Carbo Landscape Architecture. Among the modern streetcar projects Aecom recently completed was the extension of the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority’s new streetcar on Rampart Street in the French Quarter.
The city-parish Engineering Selection Committee is not expected to select a winner at tonight’s meeting. Instead, it will likely score the two proposals and invite both teams to interview with the committee, after which time it will issue a second round of scores and select a finalist. Stephen Bonnette, the city-parish’s director of transportation, hopes to make a final recommendation to the Metro Council about which of the two teams to enter into contracts negotiations with by December.
Whichever team is ultimately chosen, the scope of work will be extensive. The design and engineering contract will include designing the locations and appearance of the stops along the route, choosing the type of streetcar that will be used as well as its power source, designing ancillary buildings along the route and landscaping the area.
Funds for the design and engineering contract were appropriated earlier this year by the Metro Council, even though the federal government has not yet awarded construction dollars to the city-parish to actually build the streetcar line. In late September, the city-parish began the application process of asking for some $67.5 million in funds—about 40% of the estimated $170 million that will be needed to complete the project.
Bonnette says it is unclear when the city will complete the application process. It might be later this year, or city-parish officials may decided to wait until late 2017 to seek funding.
“It’s a very competitive process and we want to make sure we are in the best position when we make our request,” he says.
The Engineering Selection Committee meets at 5 p.m. at the East Baton Rouge Parish Planning Commission office at 1100 Laurel St.
—Stephanie Riegel
