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Old 07-13-2019, 07:48 AM
 
Location: Elsewhere
88,293 posts, read 84,292,537 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Shizzles View Post
I've always been of the opinion that we should hire a French, Japanese or German company to come in and build out a new subway system (ala LaGuardia and building the IND). Europe/Japan have the technical expertise to get it done cheaper and faster....they can hire from the local unions to keep the politicians happy but other than that everything from planning to design to building would be under their [foreign contractors] watch.
Canadians are doing the LGA CTB.

Nobody just "hires" firms for public projects like that. There's a competitive procurement process. What's to stop those firms from submitting their qualifications, and if they make the short list, a proposal? (Of course, some people believe the contracts are handed out by politicians, but in Reality World, that's not how it works.)

There are likely reasons they decide not to pursue. One is cost. Each of the three short-listed development teams for LaGuardia spent in the vicinity of $10 million during the procurement. If a firm or team doesn't think it has a shot at competing, they won't risk the money.

In the case of the LGA Airtrain, a foreign company might very well have a shot with the level of expertise and experience they have.
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Old 07-13-2019, 09:07 AM
 
33,878 posts, read 47,070,732 times
Reputation: 14184
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mightyqueen801 View Post
Canadians are doing the LGA CTB.

Nobody just "hires" firms for public projects like that. There's a competitive procurement process. What's to stop those firms from submitting their qualifications, and if they make the short list, a proposal? (Of course, some people believe the contracts are handed out by politicians, but in Reality World, that's not how it works.)

There are likely reasons they decide not to pursue. One is cost. Each of the three short-listed development teams for LaGuardia spent in the vicinity of $10 million during the procurement. If a firm or team doesn't think it has a shot at competing, they won't risk the money.

In the case of the LGA Airtrain, a foreign company might very well have a shot with the level of expertise and experience they have.
Tell them how those RFPs work NJ MoD
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Old 07-13-2019, 10:10 AM
 
Location: Elsewhere
88,293 posts, read 84,292,537 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SeventhFloor View Post
Tell them how those RFPs work NJ MoD
LOL, I'm not the NJ Mod.

I am a mod, and I am from NJ, though!
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Old 07-13-2019, 01:52 PM
 
15,803 posts, read 14,414,927 times
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The NYC Subway system is never going to be replaced. It may get updated, extended, and infilled. But the existing set of tunnels and stations will remain in use for another 100 years.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Shizzles View Post
I've always been of the opinion that we should hire a French, Japanese or German company to come in and build out a new subway system (ala LaGuardia and building the IND). Europe/Japan have the technical expertise to get it done cheaper and faster....they can hire from the local unions to keep the politicians happy but other than that everything from planning to design to building would be under their [foreign contractors] watch.
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Old 07-13-2019, 04:03 PM
 
Location: Elsewhere
88,293 posts, read 84,292,537 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BBMW View Post
The NYC Subway system is never going to be replaced. It may get updated, extended, and infilled. But the existing set of tunnels and stations will remain in use for another 100 years.
I think Shizzles was referring to upcoming projects, not a rebuild of the Subway. He can clarify, though.
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Old 07-15-2019, 05:29 AM
 
25,556 posts, read 23,889,069 times
Reputation: 10119
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shizzles View Post
I've always been of the opinion that we should hire a French, Japanese or German company to come in and build out a new subway system (ala LaGuardia and building the IND). Europe/Japan have the technical expertise to get it done cheaper and faster....they can hire from the local unions to keep the politicians happy but other than that everything from planning to design to building would be under their [foreign contractors] watch.
At least some of the work is already done by foreign contractors. The CBTC systems, the tunnel boring systems, and of course the trains are all made by foreign firms. One thing overly inflating costs is look at the full length mezzanines for the three new Second Avenue stations. Alone they massively increased the cost of the project. European systems these days use tunnel boring machines that bore not just the whole tunnel, but the station itself almost never have a full length mezzanine.

In fact building too many full length mezzanines on the original IND drained away money that could have been used in the Second Avenue Subway in the 30s. Example the only station on the Queens Blvd line needing a full length mezzanine is Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue because it’s a major transfer point with both the 7 train and the buses.
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Old 07-15-2019, 06:01 AM
 
Location: Manhattan, NYC
1,274 posts, read 975,368 times
Reputation: 1250
If the article is correct, someone working overtime can be paid $280k at the MTA, and since he only had to pay back $10k, that's still $270k. Sounds like a reasonable salary to check in!
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Old 07-15-2019, 06:10 AM
 
Location: JC
1,837 posts, read 1,605,475 times
Reputation: 1671
Quote:
On 10 different occasions from April through June of 2018, the IG’s office found Murphy camped out or near his home while he was clocked into work. That behavior allowed him to rake in upwards of $280,000 in pay over the course of the year, roughly half of it overtime, increasing his pension payments as a retiree.




The LIRR expects to sue Murphy for the hours he did not work — agency officials believe he owes approximately $10,000. The kind of overtime abuse Murphy committed has led some elected officials like Gov. Cuomo to call for an agency-wide investigation of time and attendance fraud.

Ridiculous.

Yet my bet is none of these people see jail time and if let go it comes with a fat pension parachute.
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Old 07-15-2019, 08:37 AM
 
Location: Brooklyn, New York
5,450 posts, read 5,678,312 times
Reputation: 6052
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mightyqueen801 View Post
Canadians are doing the LGA CTB.

Nobody just "hires" firms for public projects like that. There's a competitive procurement process. What's to stop those firms from submitting their qualifications, and if they make the short list, a proposal? (Of course, some people believe the contracts are handed out by politicians, but in Reality World, that's not how it works.)

There are likely reasons they decide not to pursue. One is cost. Each of the three short-listed development teams for LaGuardia spent in the vicinity of $10 million during the procurement. If a firm or team doesn't think it has a shot at competing, they won't risk the money.

In the case of the LGA Airtrain, a foreign company might very well have a shot with the level of expertise and experience they have.
RFPs on these kinds of major projects always have some kind of influence. Remember, MTA writes the RFPs, so they can influence the cost or the type of vendor they want by simply adding new requirements or establishing new/different goals. This is done all the time. This is why the new LGA AirTrain is projected to be one of the most expensive cost per mile trains in the world, and its not even a full subway and its not even a tunnel underground, oh and did I mention it is going the wrong way and doesn't cut travel time to LGA? Most of this is done under cost+ or prevailing wages with no oversight (MTA inspectors are not even showing up to sites to check if contractors are working, they are just signing off on whatever timesheets they get submitted), etc.
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Old 07-15-2019, 09:40 AM
 
Location: Elsewhere
88,293 posts, read 84,292,537 times
Reputation: 114641
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gantz View Post
RFPs on these kinds of major projects always have some kind of influence. Remember, MTA writes the RFPs, so they can influence the cost or the type of vendor they want by simply adding new requirements or establishing new/different goals. This is done all the time. This is why the new LGA AirTrain is projected to be one of the most expensive cost per mile trains in the world, and its not even a full subway and its not even a tunnel underground, oh and did I mention it is going the wrong way and doesn't cut travel time to LGA? Most of this is done under cost+ or prevailing wages with no oversight (MTA inspectors are not even showing up to sites to check if contractors are working, they are just signing off on whatever timesheets they get submitted), etc.
LGA AirTrain has nothing to do with the MTA. It's a Port Authority project. And yes, your opinion of its value is shared by many.

I am not sure whether or not the MTA gets away with tailoring RFPs to limit competition, but in my opinion as a person who prepared RFPs in the past and who works for a firm who responds to them in the present, they have the very worst and most incomprehensible standard RFPs out there of any of the public agencies. They need someone to come in and take their templates and standard language and give them a major overhaul. Does make me wonder if there's a reason they DON'T.
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