MBTA To Pay $25 Million To Add Anti-Collision Technology To Green Line After Crash
STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, MARCH 24, 2022 (State House News Service) - The MBTA will pay $25 million to a Boston-based company to accelerate installation of anti-collision technology on the Green Line in the wake of a trolley crash last year that injured more than two dozen riders.
The MBTA Board on Thursday awarded a no-bid contract to Alternate Concepts, Inc. to install the Green Line Train Protection System, which will deploy radar signals, cameras, improved communications capabilities, and measures to prevent train crashes.
The additional spending will push up the completion date for the project by one year to December 2023, aligning with a federal deadline, according to MBTA Chief of Capital Transformation Angel Peña. It was not immediately clear why the original target date fell after the federal deadline.
Officials have been slow to deploy anti-collision technology, versions of which are already in place on other subway and commuter rail lines, to the Green Line even after the Federal Transit Administration recommended its use following a pair of trolley crashes in 2008 and 2009.
"We do understand the frustration with the past and for the challenges that have occurred, but what I can tell you and speak about right now is how the MBTA and senior management of this organization is fully committed to find ways to deliver this system much sooner," Peña told the agency's board.
In July, a Green Line trolley allegedly traveling three times the speed limit struck another trolley from behind, injuring 27 people. The incident prompted calls for deployment of anti-collision technology, and in January, former Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins announced she would open a criminal probe into the T over the crash.
The T was hesitant to try and speed up the design of the safety-critical system, Peña said, so the new contract with ACI will instead bring what he described as a qualified and well-equipped company into the fold to achieve faster installation of the technology in Green Line vehicles.
MBTA leaders did not put the contract out for a bid and awarded a non-competitive procurement to ACI. Officials said there was an "unusual and compelling urgency" to complete the work quickly because of the federal deadline and that ACI demonstrated a unique capability for the work.
Chief Procurement and Contracts Administration Officer Jeff Cook said the T also sought a third-party cost analysis before awarding the bid to ACI.
"When you put those together, if we did not do this and we were competitively going out, we'd actually push this project beyond the federal mandate of Dec. 31, 2023," Cook said. "Hence, we're taking this approach to be able to push up the acceleration because of the safety issues."
(© Copyright 2022 State House News Service)
