Worcester Regional Transit Authority Vehicle Maintenance, Operations and Storage Facility
Worcester, Mass.           
Award of Merit

Owner: Worcester Regional Transit Authority
Architect-Civil Engineer-MEP Engineer: STV
Construction Manager: Skanska USA Building Inc.
Environmental Engineer: TRC Solutions
Geotechnical Engineer: GZA GeoEnvironmental Inc.
Scheduling & Cost Estimating: Keville Enterprises Inc.
Surveying: Bryant Associates Inc.
Owner’s Project Manager: CDR Maguire Inc.
Plumbing & Fire Protection: Arden Engineering LLC
Subcontractors: J.F. White Contracting Co. (Driven Steel H-Piles); Lymo Construction Co. (Metal Panels); Manafort-Precision LLC (Concrete); William F. Lynch Co. Inc. (HVAC)

A two-story, 150,000-sq-ft vehicle maintenance, operations and storage facility was finished in 25 months despite unanticipated below-grade obstructions from a razed 19th-century building. The $72.8-million project was delivered $2.5 million below the final guaranteed maximum price. The team also finished the project before the transit authority had to vacate its old property—a 1940s-era converted trolley barn.

The project increased fleet maintenance and storage space while providing a more productive, efficient and safe work environment. A $39-million Federal Transit Administration grant, which helped pay for the facility, was one of the largest awarded to a single public agency in the U.S.

Originally occupied by a gas manufacturing plant that dated to the 1880s, the 11-acre site sat vacant since it was designated a brownfield in the 1960s. A remediation plan treated soils contaminated with coal tar and asbestos before the pollutants were removed from the site.

Under the original design, steel H-piles were oversized to compensate for anticipated corrosion. During preconstruction planning, J.F. White Contracting Co. suggested a coal-tar epoxy polyamide coating to protect the beams. That allowed a reduction in H-pile size, which saved $350,000.

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