TURNKEY UPDATE: THE SUCCESS STORY OF THE HOUSTON LIGHT RAIL PROJECT

This paper describes how the Houston Light Rail project is certainly one of the greatest success stories in the US LRT market in the last ten years. After several at best partially successful turnkey projects - mostly part of the FTA pilot project - Houston has proven that the turnkey project delivery method can indeed bring the long claimed benefits of significant cost savings and accelerated project implementation. This presentation will look at the reasons for this success and will also present the lessons learned along the way. Although every project is different in some ways there are undoubtedly some commonalities that can explain why certain turnkey projects have failed and why other have kept the promises that were made by the promoters of this approach. The paper talks from the perspective of the global market leader for rail turnkey projects about the particularities of the US market that have forced the industry to find new ways in developing turnkey projects in this market. While focusing on the Houston LRT project, potential innovative ways of developing a New Start project with and without FTA funding shall be addressed briefly. The Portland I-205 Corridor procurement approach taken by TriMet will be discussed as one option to develop a project jointly between Transit Authority, Consultant and Systems Supplier with FTA funding. This innovative progressive Design-Build concept might serve as a template to reap the benefits of the turnkey approach while allowing the Authority to maintain a high level of control over the implementation process. It will be discussed in how far Houston METRO might be able to replicate this concept for planned system extensions while building on their positive experience with the initial LRT project implementation.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/1931594112
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Full conference proceedings available on CD-ROM.
• Corporate Authors:

  American Public Transportation Association

  1666 K Street, NW, Suite 1100
  Washington, DC  United States  20006
• Authors:
  • Lohmann, M
• Conference:
  • Rail Transit Conference
  • Location: Miami Florida
  • Date: 2001-6-10 to 2001-6-14
• Publication Date: 2004

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 4p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Consultants; Corridors; Design build; Implementation; Innovation; Light rail transit; Line extensions (Rail transit); Local transportation; Project management; Public transit; Rail transit; Transportation planning
• Geographic Terms: Houston (Texas)
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Research;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00977308
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 1931594112
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Aug 3 2004 12:00AM