Delivery Partner chosen for Hudson Tunnel Project

MPA Delivery Partners, a joint venture of Parsons Corporation, Arcadis of New York, and Mace North America Ltd, was chosen from a shortlist of three consortia. It will provide project management support in key areas, including interface risk management, cost and schedule assurance, safety and quality management, and innovation and value engineering. It will also provide construction management support in the form of field management and safety, and quality and compliance support.

The group will be “the arms and legs that enable GDC to continue to move this project in high gear as we prepare for heavy construction to start”, co-chairs Balpreet Grewal-Virk and Tony Coscia said in a joint statement.

“With more major contract awards coming down the pike this year, getting the delivery partner on board ensures we have the strongest and most agile team possible at the ready,” they said.

The project delivery model is fairly new in the US but it has been used in other countries, such as Metrolinx’s subway expansion in Ontario, London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the UK’s HS2 high-speed railway and Sydney Metro in Australia.

Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner said GDC’s partnership with MPA Delivery Partners would “leverage the skills and experience of these seasoned private sector firms and ensure GDC has the capabilities to successfully build this critical asset that will transform passenger rail in New Jersey, New York, and the Northeast Corridor”.

The US$16bn project involves building the new 3.8km two-tube Gateway Tunnel under the Hudson River, between Newark, New Jersey, and New York City’s Penn Station, and refurbishing Amtrak’s existing 112-year-old North River rail tunnel, which was badly damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

Earlier this month, the GDC cleared the way for work to begin in the river this year when it awarded the first heavy construction contract – for the Hudson River Ground Stabilisation – to Weeks Marine.