Maryland's horrifically-behind-schedule-and-overbudget Purple Line light rail project may be getting some adult supervision. Egis, a global engineering and consulting firm, has been selected to serve as the Independent Engineer for the project. In this role, Egis will act as an impartial reviewer, ensuring the project meets standards of quality and safety. The firm will provide independent assessments for both the Concessionaire, Purple Line Transit Partners, and the owner, the Maryland Department of Transportation/Maryland Transit Administration.
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| Chevy Chase Lake Purple Line station platform under construction |
The 16-mile Purple Line will connect Prince George's and Montgomery counties. "We are thrilled to contribute to this vital infrastructure project, which will transform the daily commutes of thousands of riders," Yann Jaouan, Chief Commercial Officer, Egis in the U.S. said in a statement this morning. "This appointment underscores the trust placed in Egis by the Maryland DOT, MTA, and Purple Line Transit Partners."
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| Stairs leading up to rider platform at Chevy Chase Lake Purple Line station |
Egis' responsibilities will encompass a range of tasks, including:
- Reviewing technical submissions and drawings
- Conducting on-site inspections
- Supporting the commissioning of the Purple Line LRT
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| Purple Line station rider platform |
A dedicated team of LRT and P3 experts from the U.S., Canada, and Europe will execute the 4-year contract, the cost of which was not announced. Egis has an extensive history of involvement in complex rail projects across the United States, including some that have faced setbacks and troubles like the Purple Line. The firm's experience includes:
- Asset condition assessment of rolling stock for Amtrak
- Implementation of a fully automatic train control system on two New York City subway lines
- Current support for the delivery of the California High-Speed Rail program
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| View from Chevy Chase Lake Purple Line station rider platform |
The appointment of Egis as Independent Engineer for the Purple Line marks a significant development, as costs continue to spiral out of control, and the launch of the rail line keeps being pushed further into the future. It has become the state-level version of Montgomery County's infamous Silver Spring Transit Center on steroids.
30 comments:
16 miles of this isn't gonna end well.
Mmmm. . . boondoggle
"[T]his vital infrastructure project, which will transform the daily commutes of thousands of riders". You got that right, although I predict not in the positive light the speaker wants folks to envision it.
Yes, Hogan bears much responsibility for this (delaying the project to value engineer it, cancelling the initial contract and signing a new one that costs billions more, etc), but privatizing the project in the first place was obviously a mistake.
*sigh* Years behind and billions over ... on par with most if not all large infrastructure and transportation projects (think ICC and Robert's note of the SS gateway).
I remember getting a ton of push back when challenging the original estimates as completely unrealistic. The powers that be never seem to listen to us ...
Original: $2 billion, 5 years
Current: $10 billion, 10 years
So it’s now costing more money because they don’t work for free. A four year contract brings it into 2029. What a joke.
Is this commissioning agent part of the original plan, as many developments include such oversight, or is this a new element to the project?
Hogan demanded the private general contractor be added between the Maryland Department of Transportation and the other contractors. The general contractor collapsed in 2020 and that is the reason for the multi-year delay in the project. That is on Hogan alone.
It’s an utter MESS. One wonders if the contractors even know well in advance if different parts of the route are DEDICATED apart from traffic or SHARED with traffic ????
If they don’t know and are forced to guess, then we are all in trouble !!
I will not at all be surprised if the ending cost is 12 to14 Billion. It will be the most expensive Light Rail EVER built in the World !!
I predict it goes over 12 Billion when all is said and done.
I still treasure my Build Communities NOT Canyons bumper sticker from the Elm Street Park protest rally against that project...
Purple Line Crime Pipeline?
But now it will be Trump's fault as there aren't any Republicans left to blame in Maryland. They're already doing now and he isn't even in office yet.
It would be refreshing to see a democrat take responsibility for ANY of the results of their own policies but idiots like Biden/Newsome/Raskin/Elrich etal are ideological zealots who were never told no when growing up.
The contract shuffle was to line his own pockets before he left.
Show me one major infrastructure project that has come in on or under the initial cost estimate. NONE! That's why it's an estimate, they are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you'll get. Be thankful the Key Bridge rebuild will be fed funded. They can then sanction the hell out of the responsible shipping company for reimbursement.
Hogan, the typical republicant grifter.
Maybe PG County is concerned too, we have our own riff raff!
PG County is slowly taking over all of South Tier Montgomery County. We've already lost SS and Wheaton. North Bethesda will only be about 5 to 7 years behind us.
Don't forget the worst offender, Obama, whose never worked a real job in his entire life.
@6:05, My Wikipedia search tells me that, "In June 2015, the Purple Line was approved by [Republican] Governor Larry Hogan, who opposed the project while campaigning in 2014. Hogan cancelled its sister project, the Baltimore Red Line, citing excessive costs, and reduced the state's contribution to the Purple Line from $700 million to $168 million, putting the difference toward highway construction. To make up the difference, Prince George's and Montgomery counties would contribute more money and the frequency of train service would be reduced." Since Hogan retained veto authority of the program until he left office until January, 2023, well after construction finally commenced, cost-overruns had begun mounting, and the opportunity had passed to stop the project and admit it was a bad idea, isn't there a soupçon of blame Republicans should take for the chaos that is the Purple Line?
Predict that the same boondoggle playbook will occur for the replacement bridge in Baltimore, only the numbers will be much much higher.
@2:44 Hogan does share blame for greenlighting the project and should have ignored the MD legislators selling their souls to the altar of light-rail. However, the management of the project let themselves bend to the will of countless environmental studies and delays ALL of which could have been solved by adding a couple more J2 busses.
Look at how liberals manage money and infrastructure. They take away 1/3 of a major commuting road for bike lanes that are criminally underutilized, then scream that light-rail is what we need to alleviate traffic. They've had their foot on the gas for this project at any cost. If you can't see that, maybe some self actualization is in order.
Why don't they hire the MoCo geniuses who devised lane starving and road humps?
Speaking of self-examination, you might want to review your timeline on this one, @2:37. They take away 1/3 of a major commuting road for bike lanes that are criminally underutilized, then scream that light-rail is what we need to alleviate traffic. The PL was broached in the mid-1990s and actually broke ground in 2017, quite some time before the 2020 Old George was cannibalized to accommodate [non-existent] bike riders.
As for the management of the project let[ting] themselves bend to the will of countless environmental studies and delays, Do you mean the environmental study that was required by federal law? Are the delays to which you refer those imposed when a judge vacated approval of that study, arguing it failed to account for Metro's falling ridership (and revenues,) and for how the transit agency would maintain the system? I'm no law-knowing guy, but I think it was then, as it is today, considered a criminal offense to ignore a judge's injunction. Perhaps that might explain the project management's timidity to boldly forge ahead: not wanting to be thrown in jail.
Oh! I just remembered eighteen months of delay were caused by the PL management team themselves, when they stopped construction and quit in spring 2020. Perhaps if they'd shown greater fortitude, not bent to the will of their own complaints, construction would have forged ahead more quickly.
Read carefully as the OGR example was used a symptom of how the people in charge of taxpayer dollars exercise discretion to justify the way the money is spent. This is why we're getting the PL irregardless of cost.
The environmental delays were not the mandatory study but lawsuits like the one in 2020, eventually thrown out but halted the project. Other delays like the labor dispute contributed to driving the costs of this project.
And imagine - there are people on this board who fail to see this, preferring instead to throw invective on us.
Speaking of more ways the leadership in this county spends money: Driving along OGR, they had three separate crews in the southbound bike lanes cleaning by hand and with skidsteers. This is a result of those lanes being too tight for a regular snowplow to clear the lane without taking out the plastic bollards. Add this extra expense to maintain lanes that are unused whereas normal lanes would be a single SHA employee with a snowplow.
Good job watching over taxpayer dollars.
Irregardless ! Are you from New Jersey?
Next we'll need an "oversight of oversight contractor' to insure the Substantial Fleecing Performance.
Where are the grifters like Leventhal and Ben Ross that birthed this unholy debacle. I guess they have crawled back under their rocks.
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