Riding the Rails

WMATA Taps Construction Industry's Expertise to Complete Blue Line Extension

By Debra Wood

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority's first major foray into design-build projects, the Metrorail Blue Line extension into Prince George's County, Md., will have commuters riding the rails years sooner than with a traditional design-bid-build approach.

The Morgan Boulevard Station was structurally complete last November.

In very short order, a 3.1-mi. extension of the Metrorail Blue Line will open later this year.

WMATA began planning the extension of its Metrorail System during the mid-1990s, but area residents complained about initial plans for an above-grade system, prompting a change in plans.

Ground was finally broken on the Blue Line extension in 2001.

The Lane Construction Corp. of Meriden, Conn., received a $15 million site preparation and utility-relocations contract that included construction of a 325-ft., two-span bridge across the Beltway. The company completed the work five months ahead of schedule and 24 percent below budget.

WMATA awarded the linear and station aspects of the extension to two different joint ventures, which meant close coordination was needed between construction and architectural firms.

"Something we did very early in the project was executed a three-party cooperative agreement, between the owner, WMATA and the primary design builders," said Colin Myers, WMATA senior project manager for Maryland projects. "We were able to look at key areas of interface and establish an agreement as to how they would be handled."

LGS, a joint venture, received the $217 million contract to design and build the line, track and related facilities. It is the largest single contract awarded by WMATA. The joint venture partners include Lane, which serves as lead; Granite Construction Inc. of Watsonville, Calif.; and Slattery-Skanska Inc. of Whitestone, N.Y. Clark-Kiewit Largo, another joint venture, picked up the $92 million contract for two transit stations and support structures. The partners are Clark Construction of Bethesda, Md., and Peter Kiewit Sons' Inc. of Omaha, Neb.

WMATA awarded both contracts in 2002, and the job is now almost complete.

"I'm very pleased [with how it has progressed]," Myers said. "We have been able to go faster, but we've also been able to tap into the contractors' and design-builders' expertise. In the past,
we always did certain things in a certain way. Now we're allowing designers and builders to exercise their initiative."

Building the Line The rail line consists of 11,200 ft. of cut-and-cover box-tunnel construction and 3,150 ft. of aerial structure. The line comes out of the ground at the Beltway, then goes back underground to a storage area at the end of the line.

"In the past, they would probably have allowed five years for doing the same thing we are doing in three," said Dave Edfors, project director for LGS. "We're basically a heavy contractor involved with not only the heavy construction but also in the design, electric power and automatic train-control system."

LGS will run the Metro train for about six months to make sure it works. Company officials meet regularly with Metro operating personnel to coordinate and confirm that what is being built will
meet its needs.

To speed construction, LGS used a top-down DF track construction and incorporated drainage into the track slab rather than below, as WMATA had done in the past. It used Bentonite Geotextile waterproofing with HDPE backing and provided a Fuco Tub passive injection system as waterproofing backup.

Prefabricated tunnel-box rebar was placed ahead of a tunnel traveler form. The company used a concrete maturity measurement device to allow early stripping of tunnel forms. For the aerial
structures, LGS used steel-plate girders, rather than precast segmental concrete.

LGS self-performed almost all of the civil work. It selected subcontractors before submitting its proposal and chose firms it had worked with before, had good reputations and were familiar with the Metro system.

Truland Systems Corp. of Arlington, Va., and Walker-Seal Companies Inc. of Fairfax, Va., formed TSC/WSC Joint Venture to handle the electrical, traction power and communications systems.

"With a design-build project, you receive the design information very close to when you need to build the product," said Chuck Tomasco, project manager for TSC/WSC. "A lot of times, you may have to take a risk and order a product prior to when the design is complete,
then make changes in the middle of the fabrication process or after it arrives on-site. You have to take certain risks to stay on schedule."

TSC/WSC also was selected as the electrical subcontractor for the stations and is coordinating with both general contractors and designers. Conduits must match exactly. LGS builds the line, but Clark-Kiewit handles the platforms.

Station Features Clark-Kiewit received notice to proceed in November 2002 and has met all three of its milestones. The Morgan Boulevard and Largo Town Center stations were structurally complete in November.

Lisa Enloe, project manager for Clark-Kiewit and a vice president with Clark, considers the speedy schedule one of the most challenging aspects of the job.

HSMM/STV Largo, a joint venture, designed the two stations. Hayes, Seay, Mattern & Mattern of Roanoke, Va., and STV Inc. of New York City split up the work. HSMM handled the Largo station and parking structure, as well as the child-care center at Morgan. STV took the balance of the Morgan station.

"The concept is a lighter, more ethereal design," said Ted Petoskey, chair of the joint venture committee for HSMM/STV Largo.

The Morgan station is cast-in-place concrete. Largo, an aerial station, has cast-in-place architectural columns atop caissons. Trapezoidal-box track girders span across the columns and are topped with a cast-in-place track slab.

Clark-Kiewit also built four columns at Largo, two at each end of the station, for LGS's steel girders and Clark-Kiewit's precast concrete girders to sit on.

"We had to make sure we understood their steel system and their bearing elevations, bearing sizes and load capacity, and design our columns for their structure as well as our own," Enloe said. Clark-Kiewit delivered the columns on time.

The two teams meet regularly and talk schedule. They share a rather confined site, so they must coordinate use of access roads and entry to each others' sites.

"We are pleased with what has happened so far and want to continue in this mode," Enloe said. "It's fun to be part of a project like this. Because of the ood communication, we have had limited problems."

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