Bechtel's Reston office will provide less than 150 GSF per worker which is less than half the County planning standard..

In an article in this week's Fairfax Times, Gregg MacDonald reports that Bechtel plans to move about 1,000 workers from its Frederick, MD, office to Reston early next year. 

As many as 1,000 new Bechtel jobs may be coming to Reston in 2015, but nearly 250 Sprint jobs in Reston and Herndon will be leaving permanently by Nov. 7. . .

“Markets are changing and it’s crucial for us to adapt so that we can continue to deliver the world-class projects customers expect from us,” said Bill Dudley, Bechtel’s chief executive officer.

According to Bechtel spokesperson Michelle Michael, many of the Maryland-based jobs will be moving to Reston, where Bechtel already employs approximately 900 workers.

"We have approximately 1,100 people in Frederick,” said Michael. “Of the positions being moved, most will come to Reston. The exact number and timing have not yet been determined.” Michael said the reorganization, which will better meet the needs of Bechtel customers, is scheduled to begin Jan. 1, 2015.

A correction to the article (actually, more of an explanation) states that "a majority of workers from Bechtel's Frederick office are relocating."

And we find out from the website of the company that retrofit the Reston office space  for Bechtel, GPI/Greenman-Pedersen, Inc., that these employees are moving into 188,000 square feet of office space.  In fact, GPI provides a fairly detailed description of the space and the challenges of remodeling:

GPI provided mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire protection design services for the 188,000-sq-ft new offices in Reston, Va. GPI worked closely with Hickok Cole Architects. Bechtel occupies space in two buildings. Building 1 includes 112,000 sq ft of office space plus a 5,000-sq-ft conference center; Building 2 includes 71,000 sq ft of office space. The office space includes a mix of offices and workstations along with standard support areas, pantries, storage, conference rooms, small sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF) area, and intermediate distribution frame/main distribution frame (IDF/MDF) rooms. The project earned LEED Silver certification and won the 2013 NAIOP Northern Virginia Best Interiors for Tenant Space 50,000 SF and Above Award of Excellence. Engineering challenges the design team faced included surveying occupied office space, phasing of demolition and new work to accommodate partially occupied spaces, coordinating low plenum clearances with new work, multiple IDF and server room designs, and providing cooling/heating to accommodate high-density conference rooms.

Not only does this office space include desk space for workers, it includes a 5,000 SF conference center, a SCIF, and a variety of support facilities.  This is a truly "Class A" office building arrangement--the kind of space any corporation would be glad to have.

So how much gross square footage (GSF) does each employee occupty?  300 GSF as the County insists should be the standard, or much less reflecting 21st century office leasing efficiences?

Here's our calculation:

• The leased space equals 188,000 square feet which, by our calculation, translates into about 214,000 gross square feet.
• The number of employes who will be working there includes the 900 already there plus a majority of the 1,100 now working at Frederick (we'll say 600, but it could be more) for a total of 1,500 employees
• Dividing the 214,000 GSF by the 1,500 employees, we learn that Bechtel will have not more than 142 GSF per worker--less than half the standard used by Fairfax County for planning office space density.  

As we have said before, using the 300 GSF/worker standard means the County will be providing less than half the infrastructure--primarily transportation--than the number of employees in Reston's and Tysons' transit station areas will require as these two employment centers evolve to their potential.  Then, of course, it will have to fix its mistake with even more expensive retrofits of its own--where possible.

The result of this calculation and its implications reminds us of the "7Ps" of planning, which actually have several variations:

• Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance
• Prior Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance
• Prior Proper Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance
• Piss Poor Planning Promotes Piss Poor Performance
• Prior Preparation and Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance
• Positive Pre-Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance
• Proper Planning and Practice Prevents Piss Poor Performance

For the record, the last variant on this list is our favorite: It's not just planning, it's execution--which County plans do not address at all.

So what do you think will happen in Reston and Tysons as a result of County planning and practice???

The planned Silver Line opening is like a cheap melodrama....

Will the hero save the poor heroine tied to the railway tracks by the evil contractor before she is hit by an oncoming Silver Line train?

It's beginning to look like the hero (if there is one in this pathetic little melodrama) may have more time than we may have been led to believe if DTP/Bechtel doesn't pick up the pace of its repairs, replacements, and other needed work to get the Silver Line operating. 

In fact, while it is all getting rather tiresome, but here's the latest from RestonNow on DTP/Bechtel's slovenly effort:

Metro: Unfinished Work Remains as Silver Line Opening Day Looms

by Karen Goff | July 14, 2014 at 11:55 am | No Comments

 Metro is still planning to open the Silver Line on July 26 even though work remains unfinished by Bechtel contractor Dulles Transit Partners.

Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said on Monday that several items DTP should have completed by now are not finished.

One area — the application of heat tape on the third rail — is to be done by the end of July according to the post-operational readiness agreement. Stessel says the heat tape work has not even started.

“It has been disappointing to us to see that the contractor has not been taking advantage of every available work window,” he said. “They could have done much more.”

Stessel said DTP has also not resolved water leaks at several stations. He said that the heat tape, which prevents freezing so it isn’t urgently needed in July, can be applied after opening. . . .

Click the headline to read the rest of this ongoing story of ineptitude and overspending.  

. . . But WaPo says end of summer Silver Line operations deadline could be jeopardized

In our previous post, WAMU noted that the Silver Line could be open for operations by the end of July.  On the other hand, WaPo's take, by Paul Duggan and Lori Aratani, says it may not open by the end of summer.

WMATA doesn't really know and neither do we.  We would, however, expect that WMATA would like to meet at least the 90-day timeframe laid out for its testing and evaluation of the line.  That would put the start of operations by the end of August--a good time to start because ridership will be relatively low as potential riders are finishing up summer vacations before school starts in early September allowing WMATA to smooth out the rough edges of this major rail line launch.  But that all depends on Bechtel and MWAA getting their act together to finish the repairs and fix the errors in the Silver Line construction--and that is not a wager we believe would be wise to make after a year of construction delays on what was suppose to be a 4-year project.

Here's what the Post has to say:

Much-delayed Silver Line behind schedule again; Metro worried about summer opening

The builders of Metro’s Silver Line, under pressure to finish the project so that passenger service can begin just weeks from now, are behind schedule on many final work items, leaving transit officials worried about a potential delay of the rail line’s hoped-for summer opening, a top Metro manager said Monday.

Rob Troup, Metro’s chief of operations, noted that contractors working for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which is overseeing construction of the project, agreed in writing to complete 33 “punch list” items in time for riders to start using the Silver Line this summer. That memorandum of understanding was hailed in April as a big step toward finishing the current phase of the much-delayed project.

Read related:

“However,” Troup told reporters in a conference call Monday, “we do have concern that the airports authority and the contractor are behind schedule on approximately half of the items we have listed” in the memorandum. He said: “This is work that has to be completed before we start [passenger] service. We expected them to be further along at this point.”

The Silver Line contractors, led by construction giant Bechtel, are known collectively as Dulles Transit Partners. The project’s first phase is 11.7 miles of track with four new stations in Tysons Corner and one in Reston. That was originally scheduled to be done by late 2013, and its current estimated cost is $2.9 billion, about $150 million over budget.

To hasten the start of passenger service, Metro agreed to take control of the Silver Line before the contractors had completed their work. The transfer of control, on May 27, allowed Metro to begin 90 days of testing the line, with the understanding that Dulles Transit Partners would finish the project in that period. . . .

Click here to read the rest of the Post article. 

Who Will Pay For The Silver Line's Delays? WAMU 88.5, May 21, 2014

This lede from Martin Di Caro's latest report on the Silver Line says it all:

It's not yet clear who will pick up the tab for additional repair work on the Silver Line.

And here is the nub of his report:

As far as who pays for the repair work now—MWAA or the contractor—Paolino said Bechtel covers the expenses at first, but who will ultimately pay will be sorted our later. "The contractor undertakes the work, such as replacing the speakers, and then there are processes within the contract that lay out how the cost is allocated afterwards," Paolino says.

This is the closest Paolino came to saying someone else may have to pay for the Silver Line's delays: "Obviously there will be a time after the project is complete to look back and address any needs such as addressing additional costs."

Does it not seem odd, if not incompetent, that MWAA lets Bechtel proceed with millions of dollars of repairs without having decided who is going to pay for it?

You know they're not talking because, under the "Funding Partners Agreement" among MWAA, Loudoun and Fairfax counties, Dulles Toll Road users--who neither built the shoddy railway nor poorly managed its construction--will be stuck with three-quarters of the cost.

Click here for the rest of Di Caro's report, including the soundtrack.

Project Leaders Assure Riders Silver Line Will Be Safe, Martin Di Caro, WAMU 88.5, April 29, 2014

As project leaders work with their contractor under a new agreement (pdf) to make the fixes and improvements necessary to open the Silver Line Metrorail through Tysons Corner to Reston, officials are assuring the public that ongoing problems with the Silver Line’s control system will not jeopardize their safety on the tracks.

As any Metro train makes its way from station to station to pick up commuters and tourists, its speed and spacing are controlled by a computer. The system that prevents it from blowing through red signals, going too fast, or colliding with a train in front is known as Automatic Train Control, or ATC.

Silver not agreeing with Orange

The ATC system that will be used on the 11.5-mile Silver Line was built by the same firm whose name is all over Metro’s existing automated signaling system in use on more than 100 miles of track: Alstom Signaling, one of only a handful of companies qualified to perform such work.

The problems Alstom is now tasked with fixing are mostly connected to the new Silver Line not syncing with the old Orange Line, causing breaks in the communications link and thus slowing down smooth rail operations. Alstom is a subcontractor of Bechtel, the construction and engineering giant hired by the state of Virginia last decade to build the rail line. The project has since been in the hands of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA).

“Train control systems are designed to fail safe,” said Pat Nowakowski, the project’s executive director at MWAA who will be leaving his post this week for a job with a yet-to-be announced public transit agency.

Unlike the 2009 Red Line crash (pdf), when the failure of Alstom’s circuit signals caused a deadly collision, the breakdowns in the Silver Line ATC system are causing test trains to stop in their tracks. The problem is they are stopping when they should not. In technical terms, the track circuits are "bobbing." . .

Click here for the rest of this article and Di Caro's radio report.  

Any article about the Silver Line that begins with a headline that "Project leaders assure..." has to be automatically suspect.  How many times have we been assured the project was on schedule, under budget, the problems would be fixed on time, etc?  "Project leaders" really have no credibility at this point.