LIRR awards major contracts for double-track project

MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) has awarded a $59.7 million contract to the Skanska-Posillico II joint venture to design and build 6.1 miles of trackbed between Farmingdale and Deer Park, N.Y.

MTA Long Island Rail Road's Mineola station on the Main Line
Photo: Metropolitan Transportation Authority

The contract also calls for the joint venture to construct 1.3 miles of trackbed between Brentwood and Central Islip, N.Y.

Meanwhile, LIRR awarded a second $44.8 million contract to Ansaldo STS USA Inc. to design and build a new signaling system using computer-based train control software to better coordinate movement when LIRR's second track is activated. The work includes final design, fabrication, delivery and system integration, and testing of new components associated with new interlockings at Farmingdale, Wyandanch, Deer Park, and Central Islip, and a modified interlocking at Ronkonkoma.

The contract also calls for the testing of transmitters and 28 new wayside huts.

The design-build contracts will "significantly advance" LIRR's double-track project, which calls for adding a second track along an 18-mile stretch between Farmingdale and Ronkonkoma, Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) officials said in a press release.

"By using design-build contracts, we can eliminate a host of delays," said MTA Chairman Tom Prendergast. "When one team handles both design and construction it eliminates the all-too-common disconnect between various phases of a project, and helps move the process along at a more rapid clip."
 
The new track is designed to help the commuter railroad provide more frequent off-peak service to the Ronkonkoma Branch in both directions, increase flexibility and reduce delays associated with service disruptions.

The larger project is expected to be completed by 2018's end.