Newsletter_Summer 2023_FINAL for web

A PUBLICATION BY LEA+ELLIOTT TRANSPORTATION CONSULTANTS

SUMMER 2023

Rail service to Dulles International Airport a success!

Dulles Metrorail Silver Line Airport Station Image credit: L+E

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Travelers and airport employees at Dulles International Airport can now connect from downtown Washington, D.C. to the airport and surrounding areas by riding the Dulles Metrorail Silver Line. Phase 2 (the final phase) of the 23.1-mile extension of the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project opened for passenger service Nov. 15, 2022. The Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project is an extension of Washington’s existing Metrorail System and was built in two phases by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (Airports Authority) with support from local, state, and federal governments. The Airports Authority partnered with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), Fairfax County, Loudoun County, and the Town of Herndon to construct the project. Several agencies including the Federal Transit Administration, Virginia Department of Transportation, the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, and the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission provided oversight for the Project. continued on p 2

In this issue...

Rail service to Dulles International Airport a success! In Progress President’s Column Meet the staff

In Motion

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Rail service to Dulles Airport continued from p 1

“The Airports Authority is proud to be part of this great success and the great regional partnership that made it happen,” said Airports Authority President and CEO Jack Potter. Phase 1 of the Silver Line opened July 26, 2014, connecting East Falls Church with Tysons Corner and Reston (Virginia’s largest employment centers) with downtown Washington and Largo, Maryland. Phase 2 extends from the eastern edge of Reston west to the Airport and beyond to Ashburn in eastern Loudoun County. The new Silver Line saves travel time for its passengers and expands the reach of the existing WMATA regional rail system. It provides high-quality, high-capacity, safe, efficient, and affordable transit connections–from the capital to the airport, communities to jobs, entertainment, and much more–and brings economic development to the entire region. “The Silver Line will make Dulles International Airport even more accessible to passengers and employees from Washington and around the region,” said Richard Golinowski, Airports Authority vice president and airport manager. “This represents a game-changing upgrade to the area’s transportation infrastructure and will facilitate major new economic growth.” The

“Lea+Elliott has been a key contributor to the success of the Dulles Metro Rail team since 2006. They have provided the Airports Authority a resource with extensive knowledge and expertise in rail transit communications, automatic train control, and traction power systems and have supported the Project through its multiple phases. The company played a significant role in the resolution of issues by working collaboratively with WMATA subject matter experts and in the successful completion of the Silver Line Extension.” Tom Crone, MWAA Director Program Operations

Since its opening in November, the Silver Line is already bringing enormous benefits to the entire National Capital area and is a foundation for future growth, which Potter said, “is good for our business and good for the

Silver Line offers a viable alternative to automobile travel while supporting future economic development along the corridor.

local and regional economy”. Political, business and community leaders have praised the project for easing traffic congestion; improving access to jobs; spawning multiple mixed use, transit oriented developments; expanding affordable housing; providing new job opportunities; and enhancing tourism in the area. Lea+Elliott has been a member of the Program Management team since 2006. We provided expertise and support in disciplines as varied as real estate management, environmental coordination, track engineering, systems

and communications, testing and commissioning, FTA coordination, and public outreach.

Lea+Elliott team assigned to the Dulles Rail Project Front row, left to right: Rob Parsons, Sarah Ross, Don Painter, Preeti Harris, Gustavo Cevallos, Chandler Cutts Back row, left to right: Philip Lu, Stefhan Sherman, Don Wiles, Andrew Pease, Alan Cunningham

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PHX Sky Train® - Final Stage opens! PHOENIX – The PHX Sky Train® Stage 2 opened for passenger service Dec. 19, 2022. Stage 2 is the final stage of the System and includes an expansion of the System to the west side of the Airport, connecting to the Rental Car Center and a new 24th Street Station and economy parking lot. The System ends at a triple platform station at the Rental Car Center. This stage also includes a new center platform station, additional two and a half miles of dual lane guideway, expansion of the existing Maintenance & Storage Facility, 24 new vehicles, and retrofit of the existing 18 vehicles. Since the opening of Stage 2 all airport shuttle

New PHX Sky Train® station at the Rental Car Center Image credit: L+E

buses have been eliminated, relieving roadway and curbside congestion. The PHX Sky Train® is the focal point of the ground transportation system at PHX. The PHX Sky Train® program has been wildly successful and will enhance the passenger experience for years to come at America’s Friendliest Airport. The PHX Sky Train® operates 24 hours a day and seven days a week. The System operates with three-car consists on three minute headways. Previously, the trip time from the Rental Car Center to Terminal 4 by shuttle bus averaged 20-25 minutes. Now, the PHX Sky Train® carries passengers to Terminal 4 in less than eight minutes. This has vastly improved the passenger experience. Stage 1 of the PHX Sky Train® began passenger operations in April 2013. Stage 1A opened in December 2014. Lea+Elliott is the APM System Consultant for the PHX Sky Train®. As the Owner’s Representative for all three stages, Lea+Elliott was responsible for the system planning, development of the contract documents, procurement, manufacturing and construction oversight, implementation, and integration testing and commissioning. Lea+Elliott continues to provide support to the City of Phoenix for the Contractor’s additional scope of work and will perform an operations and maintenance audit and facility condition assessment for the existing System to assist Airport Operations maximize the System availability.

Inglewood is on the move INGLEWOOD - The Inglewood Transit Connector (ITC) is considering three developer teams, each with a different automated transit technology, for the 1.6-mile long, automated transit system. The planned route is elevated above Market Street, Manchester Boulevard and Prairie Avenue, with three stops connecting LA Metro’s Downtown Inglewood Station with the Kia Forum, SoFi Stadium, the Intuit Dome, as well as the housing and commercial developments in Inglewood’s new Sports and Entertainment District. The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) completed its review of the ITC Project’s environmental assessment in March 2023 and issued a Finding of No Significant Impact. In order to ensure it is delivering a project that meets the community’s needs, the City recently updated the locally preferred project alignment to co-locate the Maintenance and Storage Facility (MSF) at the Market Street Station site. This change minimizes impacts to the existing Vons supermarket, gas station and neighboring retail spaces at 500 E. Manchester Boulevard, the location originally envisioned for the MSF, allowing the community-serving uses to remain in their current locations without disruption. The City discussed this change at recent community open houses, which were held on March 29, 2023 and April 3, 2023, with more than 80 stakeholders in attendance. The forums also provided an opportunity to discuss the project’s scope, benefits, workforce opportunities and other components with a variety of residents and business owners. To facilitate this change, the ITC team prepared an addendum to the Project’s Final Environmental Impact Report, which was unanimously approved by the City Council on April 11, 2023. The City is also actively working with the FTA to complete a reevaluation in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act. continued on p 4

Lea+Elliott attended the Stage 2 Grand Opening Event Dec. 19, 2022. From left to right: L+E President/CEO Jack Norton; L+E Associate Principal and Vice President Darryl Jaquess; City of Phoenix Special Projects Administrator Anne Kurtenbach; L+E Chairman and Executive Vice President Diane Woodend Jones, AIA, AICP; and L+E Project Engineer Christian Gonzales

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In Progress continued from p 3

“The City Council and I understand that any construction on the Vons site would be disruptive to businesses residents and employees,” said Inglewood Mayor James Butts, “To put it succinctly, we heard our constituents, and we made the project better based on their input.” While the alignment generally runs within the public right of way, there are a limited number of private business properties that must be acquired to accommodate construction and operation of the new transit stations. A top priority is keeping these businesses within the City limits and helping them thrive; the project team is dedicated to actively looking for potential replacement locations in or near Inglewood. Due to the City’s hard work, and support from local residents, businesses, and stakeholders, the ITC project was awarded more than $400 million from the California State Transportation Agency last January, which is intended to help the City compete for a Federal New Starts grant. To date, the City has secured more than $765 million in funding for the design and construction of the project, which has an estimated total price tag of $1.85 billion. The final Request for Proposals is scheduled to be released this Summer with construction expected to begin in early 2024. The City seeks to provide passenger service in time for the Summer Olympic Games’ return to Los Angeles in 2028.

at Changi East and re-evaluated the previous design work done. As the aviation industry started to rebound, CAG has remobilised its design and engineering consultants to refine the T5 design. Work on all aspects of the intra- and inter-terminal APM systems resumed in October 2022 and is now back in full swing. Lea+Elliott has just completed the new concept design stage and is proceeding into schematic design. While changes are being made to the design of the APM systems, one thing that has not changed is CAG’s commitment to incorporating innovation and prioritizing the passenger experience. The 2018 article included a rendering of Changi’s existing Skytrain system passing through the soon-to-open Jewel development then as a good example of what could be possible for T5. The Jewel development opened in 2019 and is every bit as awe-inspiring as the rendering. The world should expect nothing less from T5 when it opens in the mid-2030s.

“Each and every one of these businesses is part of the City’s culture and community. Our team will go to great lengths to ensure that the relocation effort is as smooth and straightforward as possible.” Councilmember Eloy Morales

Singapore Changi Terminal 5 APM Systems SINGAPORE – Five years ago we introduced the Terminal 5 (T5) project at Singapore Changi Airport. The new terminal and associated airport improvements make up the Changi East development, anticipated to increase Changi’s handling capacity by another 50 million annual passengers. In addition to T5, the Changi East development includes commissioning a three-runway system, landside and aviation support facilities as well as the Changi East Industrial Zone. The development will have tunnels and other underground systems, including two APM systems providing intra- and inter-terminal services. In 2018-2020, Changi Airport Group (CAG) and Lea+Elliott progressed through the concept and schematic design stages of the APM projects. With the onset of the pandemic and closing of international borders, CAG took a pause on the development work

Changi Airport’s existing Skytrain system passing through the Jewel development which opened in April 2019 Image credit: L+E

NCTCOG paves the way for emerging technologies in North Texas DALLAS/FORT WORTH – The North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) leads the region’s effort to evaluate emerging technology innovations to advance the efficiency of passenger and supply chain transportation systems in North Texas. As part of this effort, Lea+Elliott assisted NCTCOG in completing the Automated Transportation System (ATS) Development Study. The ATS Development Study expands on previous NCTCOG work and envisions the use of ATS technologies for both passenger and cargo/goods movement that would provide connectivity to

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President’s Column

local, regional and national transportation systems. The study evaluated independently-running ATS vehicle technologies; assessed innovative options for wireless electric vehicle charging technologies, with a focus on dynamic charging; and developed modular guideway infrastructure design guidelines using the latest advances in technologies. NCTCOG’s efforts to evaluate emerging technology innovations are focused on achieving economies of scale through developing a modular infrastructure that is paved for use by any independent running vehicle. To reduce long-term risks of infrastructure obsolescence, while providing maximum opportunity to use any current and future vehicle technology, the guidelines for grade separated (elevated) guideways structures were developed to be utilized by various types of ATS vehicles within specific size parameters. The ATS vehicles assessed for this study can traverse a simple, paved guideway without relying on guideway-mounted equipment for propulsion or vehicle guidance that would be technology-specific to each vehicle. This type of system, smart vehicle and paved guideway infrastructure, permits the integration of future technology advances in ATS vehicles without sacrificing the infrastructure investment. Two example operating environments were used in developing the basis of this study and assessing the applicability of the concepts. The manufacturing operating environment involves the transportation of cargo/goods within a manufacturing complex. The passenger operating environment focuses on transporting passengers in a dense urban environment. To ensure the applicability of these ATS guidelines to a wide range of passenger or cargo/goods movements, the study considered two specific potential pilot systems and two retrofit applications of existing people mover systems within the region. The pilot locations used for the study were the Dallas International District and the General Motors manufacturing facility located in Arlington. The retrofit projects considered were the Las Colinas Urban Center Area Personal Transit and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport Skylink APM. The guidelines developed during this study are intended to be used as a roadmap for future first and last mile connectivity projects in the region.

Celebrating 50 years of moving people

When they wanted to retire, the founders of Lea+Elliott, Inc. could

easily have sold our firm to an outside company for a tidy profit. Instead, they found a way to pass Lea+Elliott on to its employees by adopting an Employee Stock Ownership Program (ESOP). I have always been grateful for that; and as we celebrate our 50-year anniversary, I feel, more than ever, the importance of maintaining that legacy to pass on to future leaders. It’s been an amazing ride over these past 50 years. Being in the airport and transit markets, we experienced significant ups and downs with 9/11 and the pandemic. But we have weathered those storms and prospered and continued to grow by paying attention to our priorities and staying flexible in our approach. Throughout our firm’s history, Lea+Elliott has maintained a corporate culture that is based on respect, recognition and innovation among the members of our employee-owned firm. We care deeply about each other and our clients. Our performance reviews assess how well we treat each other and those we serve. For us, being a family is more than a corporate phrase. It’s something we truly live. Lea+Elliott’s integrity is unquestioned—it comes from our founding principals and is maintained with pride by our leadership team and staff. We truly appreciate our staff and the types of professionals that we have been able to recruit and retain. Culture is very important to us and a big reason for who we hire and how we treat our employees. They make us proud each and every day and it shows in how we support our clients. We have very low turnover and over half our staff members have been with us for over 15 years. Lots of longevity. And thanks to all our fantastic clients—of course without them, celebrating 50 years wouldn’t be possible. We have incredibly long-standing relationships with several clients— some have been with us since the very beginning. These relationships are a testimony to the service we provide and the confidence they’ve placed in us. Contract after contract, year after year, these kinds of relationships are the cornerstone of our firm. So, thank you to all our friends, clients and employees who have made this milestone possible. We truly appreciate your support over the years and look forward to our on-going relationships.

Jack Norton

Conceptual image of ATS Passenger Operating Environment Image credit: NCTCOG

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2505 N. State HWY 360, Suite 750 | Grand Prairie, Texas 75050

Editor:

Crystal Oczkowski Dallas/Fort Worth | 972.890.9800 Steve Perliss San Francisco | 415.908.6450 Daniel McFadden Miami | 305.500.9390 David Little Washington, D.C. | 703.968.7883

Advisors:

About Lea+Elliott Lea+Elliott is a transportation consulting firm offering a broad range of planning, engineering, program management, and construction management services for clients worldwide. These services are provided to public transit authorities, airports and private sector owners for new transit systems and the refurbishment of existing systems. We have expertise in all modes of transit, including high-speed and intercity rail, rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, automated guideway transit, personal rapid transit, autonomous vehicles, and conventional and advanced technology buses. The firm is especially well known for its creative structuring of procurements for a wide range of delivery options that include DBOM and P3.

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Meet Nicolas Gutierrez, P.E.

LOS ANGELES - Nicolas (Nick) Gutierrez is Lea+Elliott’s Deputy Project Manager for the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) APM project. He leads the oversight of the APM systems, including fabrication of system elements, field installation, testing and commissioning activities. Throughout the past few years, he also participated in the preliminary engineering efforts and was a key member of the APM procurement team. Previously, he worked with our Honolulu team on the Honolulu Rail Transit Project. Nick says that he really enjoys the diversity of the work he performs. “Every day is different,” he says. “I may do cost estimates one day, witness an electrical test the next, or design an alignment or perform simulations.” Though trained as a civil engineer, he also performs electric and mechanical engineering activities so this also adds to the variety of opportunities for creative problem solving. Seeing a project through also gives him a sense

of satisfaction. “From sketches on a whiteboard to a finished transit system in operation, I enjoy seeing each project evolve.” Nick grew up with a natural bent toward engineering. “Since high school, I knew I wanted to do transportation engineering,” he says. “ It was always in my mind, but I never imagined I’d get to work with automated trains and transit. Lea+Elliott has given me a unique opportunity.” Nick is proud to have played a key role on the massive, 26-mile Honolulu Rail Transit Project. “It is the first automated rail transit systems in the US. and is truly a landmark project,” he says. Now, he’s equally enthused about his work at LAX. “I grew up in Colombia, but my family moved to Los Angeles when I was 13. Los Angeles is my home—and getting to work on the APM for my hometown airport gives me a lot of pride! I get to help make the airport something better and special.” When he’s not in the office, you’ll find Nick hard at work as a model maker. “I build cars, ships, boats, structures, whatever comes to mind, and I love it,” he adds. “When you build a model, you’re in your own universe. You get your head into this and you can make whatever you like.” He’ll often work on a project for up to six months. He creates his own designs and has 3D printers and other tools to help with fabrication. He has a strong reputation among model builders and has sold many of his creations to collectors across the globe.

In Motion

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