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The objectives of the Central Artery Tunnel or Big Dig project are:
Critical success factors of the project include
Evaluation Criteria | Desired Value |
Resolution of all problems including traffic congestion | Solves all problems |
Increase in transportation system resilience | Improvement in resilience |
Reduction in congestion | Less congestion |
Support for growth | Support for accommodation of extra vehicles |
More reliable transportation | Reliable public transportation with safety aspects considered |
Ability to meet the objectives of transportation and growth | Make transportation more efficient and facilitate economic growth in the region |
If nothing is done to change the status quo, it would not help meet objectives of the transportation or the growth sector. The network performance is already poor which is affecting the economic activities and deteriorating the quality of life of the residents living nearby because of a lot of accidents happening. Urban growth could not be accommodated with the exiting constraints of the network capacity. Traffic volumes on the Highway are constraining opportunities for land-use and transport integration.
In this option, the quality of service would be improved to accommodate more people travelling using public transport. However, this would relieve only some congestion as only some of the commuters would be diverted from the road to the rail network which would not be significant.
Key objectives of Big Dig project is relieve the congestion of highway, reduce the bottlenecks in the Boston downtown and reduce the rate of accidents on the highway.
Traffic Congestion: The elevated highway that was constructed in 1959 can carry 75,000 vehicles but the traffic volume has increased to over 200,000 which is why the traffic congestion has become a major issue. Close to 190,000 of these commuters using the highway use the Charles bridge. Logan Airport and Downtown Boston have two tunnels that also add to the traffic congestion. The traffic has been observed to be crawling for p to 10 hours every day. If tunnels are constructed connecting the highway and the two bridges over Charles then as significant amount of traffic would get diverted and the traffic congestion would significantly reduce.
Accident Rates: The accident rates in Boston are four times higher than the national average and most of these accidents are caused because of the missing cross links. With construction of the tunnel, there would be cross linking between bridges and tunnels and thus, accident rates would reduce.
Economic Improvement: The North end of Boston and the neighbourhood of Waterfront are isolated from the downtown which limits the economic growth of the city. With the construction of Big Dig tunnels, this connectivity requirement would be taken care of and thus, the economic capability of the nearby regions would improve
It is recommended that an underground tunnel is constructed connecting interstate highway with harbour, bridges over river, and Logan Airport, As a result of this construction, following benefits would be achieved:
The project scope includes the following:
The activities that are out of the project scope include:
The project has following constraints:
The project has certain dependencies:
The project scope would be managed as per the defined scope and the progress would be monitored to identify deviations. If the project scope is not completed on time, appropriate actions would be taken by the project manager to ensure that project is completed on time.
All the project contracts would be executed by Massachusetts Department of Public Works (DPW) and Massachusetts Highway Department (MHD). The project includes 16 programs that would be executed by Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff (B/PB) who is the management consultant for the project. Massachusetts Turnpike Authority (MTA) is the project owner who is responsible for making critical decisions on what to build, when to build, how to build, and how much to build.
DPW as well as MHD would give the contracts to a number of section design consultants (SDCs) that are selected public employee panels and approved by both authorities. Each SDC hired would be responsible for review of the preliminary design, resolving concerns of alternatives, and preparing a detailed design.
MTA would be giving oversight to B/PB through development of design and construction contracts as well as review and evaluation of engineers and project management staffs deployed on the project. Theses reviews and oversight activities would also be supported by Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) through participating in the decision making process.
SDCs would work in conformance with project scope, design criteria, interfacing requirements, and project standards. They would be responsible for quality, correctness and completeness of deliverables. MHD who would be contracting SDCs would advertise the final design developed by SDCs for starting the tendering process. The selected construction contractor from the tendering process would have to work according to the design specifications and execute a quality control (QC) program including material certification and proof testing done by B/PB which is a certified authority. B/PB would check if work of the contractor is in line with the contract specification such that if there are any discrepancies or issues arising, the case would be referred back to SDC for clarification.
For managing the complete project, a project manager would be assigned by MTA. Below the project manager, there would be a tier 2 divisional manager and a tier 3 department manager. Tier 2 would escalate any issues on project to the MTA while Tier 3 manager would review and authorize business case documentation for the project (CHAKOUR & MAZZOTTI, 2015).
The project sponsor, MTA would assume the following responsibilities:
A monthly reporting system for financial impacts and project costs would be used that would include comparison between the project expenditure and the budget. If there are variations between the costs and budget of more than $3.8 billion then authorization would be needed from the top management. A project highlight report would be developed monthly for the project sponsor to review. In the closing phase of the project, lessons learned report would be prepared. The reporting would be done by the project team to the project manager on daily basis and from project manager to the top management on monthly basis. Stakeholders would be reported the project progress on quarterly basis (Caltrans, 2007).
The procurement strategy would include alternatives in addition to the traditional PPP models of procurement such as intellectual property and learning from experience. A full PPP option would be used on this project as it would provide value for money.
The stakeholders of the project would be consulted through the use of various communication methods including surveys, meetings, interviews, emails, letters, and focus groups.
The project would take 17 years to complete and it would be executed as follows
The funding for this project would include federal funds, state funds, and borrowings. Federal government would provide 48% of the funds while remaining funds would be obtained from state resources including the infrastructure funds and own resources of the MTA (Menino, 2002).
If the project objectives could not be met, it would lead to severe consequences such as:
For the management of the quality of management processes and deliverables, following steps would be taken
The project would be completed when all the deliverables would be met with project and deliverables quality standards followed. Only when the required outcomes are achieved, the payment would be disbursed to the contractors (LaHood, 2010).
The project is expected to bring the first year return on investment of 8% after construction is finished. Other monetary benefits that would be achieved as a result of the construction of bridge include:
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