ENSCO awarded contract to manage Transportation Technology Center

ENSCO Inc. has been awarded a $571 million contract to provide research and development, testing, engineering and training services at the Transportation Technology Center (TTC) in support of the Federal Railroad Administration's (FRA) goal of establishing the center for rail and ground transportation innovation.

Under the contract, ENSCO will operate and maintain TTC, and expand use of the Pueblo, Colorado, facility to support other government and commercial entities to achieve transportation safety, security and innovation, ENSCO officials said in a press release.

Contract terms include a five-year base period and three, five-year option periods for a total of 20 years. Transition of the operations, maintenance and research programs to ENSCO will be completed by October 2022.

It was announced last week that the FRA would transfer the center's management from a single-source care, custody and control contract to a new Department of Transportation (DOT)-wide contract to support all modes of transportation.

The transition is not expected to result in major modifications to the services of Transportation Technology Center Inc., Association of American Railroads (AAR) officials said in a press release issued last week. TTCI is an AAR subsidiary.

Since its founding in 1998, TTCI has invested in research, testing, training and technical support activities to strengthen the performance of the rail industry. The nature and location of the studies have evolved to meet the demands of changing technology, with such efforts occurring across North America — including at the FRA's TTC facility in Pueblo, AAR officials said.

TTCI will continue to perform research and engineering services in accordance with its mission to advance safety, reliability and efficiency in the rail industry, and will determine any future usage of the TTC in alignment with the new DOT contractual condition and site availability, said AAR officials.

ENSCO will be supported by a team of leading surface-transportation research, training, technology and facilities management organizations focused on the next generation of technology supporting transportation infrastructure, ENCSCO officials said.

The ENSCO team also will be supported by the Center for Surface Transportation Testing and Academic Research (C-STTAR) consortium of eight universities and academic research centers. ENSCO established C-STTAR to provide expertise in research areas across all modes of surface transportation, including intermodal, which will support TTC's growth initiatives, they said.

"We have assembled an incredible team of industry and university research, safety, technology, testing and training entities to serve the needs of FRA, DOT and the surface transportation industry," said ENSCO President Boris Nejikovsky. "We are excited to support the many site stakeholders, including the AAR and its members, to continue the important railroad research occurring at the center today and to expand the capabilities of the site to other modes of transportation with this robust team."