SFMTA Board Approves Tunneling Contract For Central Subway

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), which operates the Municipal Railway (Muni), today approved the Central Subway tunneling contract at its board of directors meeting. The contract — the largest construction package for the project — was awarded to Barnard Impregilo Healy, as the lowest responsive and responsible bidder in the amount of $233,584,015.00.

Last week, the United States Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA) awarded the agency $20 million in New Starts funds for the 2011 Fiscal Year to keep the project moving forward. For the second year in a row the project has been included with a specific recommendation for funding in the President’s budget. The Central Subway has received $95.9 million in federal funding to date.

“Investing in the Central Subway is an investment in jobs, in the economic vitality of our city, in safer transit and better commutes for San Francisco’s workers,” said Leader Pelosi, a longtime advocate of this project. “With these funds, we will connect downtown to Chinatown, strengthening our economic engines, promoting commerce, providing new and viable transportation options for local residents, linking San Franciscans closer together, and easing congestion in one of the busiest areas in our nation."

“The Central Subway project is vital to connecting our city to our communities like never before,” said Mayor Edwin M. Lee. “The project invests in jobs, in people, and in our city with critical infrastructure that will improve transportation for all our residents and families.”

The Tunnel Contract will allow for the development of approximately 8,240 feet of concrete guideway tunnels and procure two tunnel boring machines to be used for actual construction.

SFMTA board chairman Tom Nolan said, “The Agency is pleased that the lowest bidder came in under the project engineer’s estimates and in these tough economic times we realize that this project will be a shot in the arm to our local economy sparking economic development, job training and growth, and creating thousands of contracting opportunities for local businesses.”

The project has made great progress over the past few years having completed the first construction contract to relocate underground utilities along the alignment, being halfway finished on the second contract for the Union Square area, and being 95 percent complete in the final designs for the tunnel and stations.

“We are pleased with the continued support for the project from Washington and our elected officials. The progress the SFMTA has made over the past few years proves that the Central Subway Project is shovel-ready and we’re on track to receive the Full Funding Grant Agreement from the FTA by year’s end,” said executive director/CEO Nathaniel P. Ford, Sr. “This tunneling contract is a major part of opening a dynamic, new era in rapid transit for the people of San Francisco, and especially for those traveling along the congested Stockton corridor.”

The Central Subway is a $1.57 billion Phase Two of the T Third Line which will extend light rail service with a surface station at 4th and Brannan streets providing a transfer point for Caltrain customers, then travel north up 4th Street before descending underground at the 1-80 Freeway. There will be subway stations at the Moscone Center, Union Square connecting to Powell Street BART and Muni, and in Chinatown. The extended T Third Line is expected to carry 65,000 passengers daily by the year 2030. The project will be in revenue service by 2018.