Railroad Forums 

  • NJT Board Meetings Agenda/Minutes/etc.

  • Discussion related to New Jersey Transit rail and light rail operations.
Discussion related to New Jersey Transit rail and light rail operations.

Moderators: lensovet, Kaback9, nick11a

 #1519723  by EuroStar
 
I thought that it might be nice to have a thread where to discuss relevant items from future or past board meetings. It might be of use to some who might decide to attend a future meeting if the agenda includes an item of interest to them.

The next meeting is this Thursday, September 12.

For that meeting, the rail related items are:
  1. First three items relate to PTC at cost of $52.5million. I personally am lost into the myriad of contracts related to PTC and cannot really comment on these. I lost track of what they have accomplished and what is still left years ago.
  2. Next is a parking lot improvement at the MMC complex at $5.8 million. Seems high for a parking lot, but this thing is in the middle of the Meadowlands, so it could be ok, but I have no idea.
  3. Replacement of a failed culvert at MP 12.70 on the North Jersey Coast Line in Middletown. Cost $2 million.
  4. Replacement of a culvert at MP 30.19 on the Gladstone Line at cost of $1.2 million. I am glad to see that at least some undergrade structures are finally being replaced.
  5. A contract with McKinsey for consulting services to "assist in implementation of comprehensive strategic, financial and operational assessment of NJTransit" at cost of $3.5 million. This is probably a complete waste as it is for political cover. The problems and the solutions are well known and we do not need McKinsey to tell us what they are, but for the board it is nice to be able to say "the consultant told me so". Unfortunately $3.5 million could go a long way at restoring the Christie Service Cuts (think Pascack Valley last train and the M&E other trains).
 #1522478  by EuroStar
 
Next meeting is on Wednesday, October 16.

The rail related items are:
  1. Award of contract for the filling of the canal and the extension of the Jersey City Sewer that currently ends in the canal at $39.6 million. This contract does not include the building of anything on top of the fill which will be a separate contract.
  2. Award of construction management contract for the Raritan River Bridge replacement at $34.0 million. I hope that this includes more than just overseeing the future contractor.
  3. Award for inspection, evaluation and rating of 143 undergrade railroad bridges.
  4. Increase in the contract for the replacement of the Morris Avenue Bridge. This bridge is located in Summit, NJ and was re-opened to traffic last year.
 #1522564  by Ken W2KB
 
EuroStar wrote: Mon Oct 14, 2019 2:08 pm [*]Award of construction management contract for the Raritan River Bridge replacement at $34.0 million. I hope that this includes more than just overseeing the future contractor.
Given that the FTA grant alone for this project is $466 million, this contract probably is limited to just ensuring that the work is properly done in compliance with all laws and regulations.
 #1523201  by lensovet
 
Increase in the contract for the replacement of the Morris Avenue Bridge. This bridge is located in Summit, NJ and was re-opened to traffic last year.
confused, what does this mean? why is the contract still ongoing if the bridge opened last year?
 #1524923  by EuroStar
 
Next Board meeting is this Wednesday, November 13th.

The only rail related item seems to be the entering in Memorandum of Understanding for the construction of the North Brunswick Train station. The Middlesex County Improvement Authority seems to be the lead of the project with total funding sources currently at $70 million. The memorandum itself does not talk about anything else other than a station and given that $70 is in no way enough for a station plus a loop, I would venture to guess that a loop is not part of this project. I personally thought that the loop was dropped long time ago during the Cristie's years as a governor and it seems unlikely that it could ever be revived.
 #1525375  by pumpers
 
Hey, this is New Jersey. I'll bet you no loop. Probably after the local contractors and politicians heard that PATH spent over $250 M in Harrison just for a PATH station (completed about a year ago?), the prices for taxpayer-funded construction all got recalibrated upwards by a sizable factor.
 #1526100  by lensovet
 
pumpers wrote: Sun Nov 17, 2019 8:12 pm Hey, this is New Jersey. I'll bet you no loop. Probably after the local contractors and politicians heard that PATH spent over $250 M in Harrison just for a PATH station (completed about a year ago?), the prices for taxpayer-funded construction all got recalibrated upwards by a sizable factor.
According to Wikipedia (and my own eyeballs), construction is not completed still (only the westbound platform was completed last year). It's also a much bigger project due to the fact that the tracks are elevated, there is demolition work, and the station is itself is very clearly an outsized building which is not cheap to build.

But then from https://www.nj.com/traffic/2019/10/cent ... -cost.html
That agreement with the Middlesex County Improvement Authority comes with a $50 million commitment from the state to get the station started by doing design and engineering work and obtaining permits.
hah, guess you're right.