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-aft Status Report on the Northstar Commuter Rail Project. June 7, 2001 <br /> <br />PRELIMINARY <br />ENGINEERING <br /> <br />Preliminary Engineering <br /> <br />A. Introduction <br />Upon completion of the planning steps required by the FTA and by <br />the State of Minnesota, the NCDA received approval to commence <br />preliminary engineering ("PE"). This phase is intended to take the <br />project from conceptual design to a 30% design level. For the <br />Northstar Project, the NCDA divided the work into three elements <br />as summarized below. The elements include: the PE on track and <br />signal improvements, BNSF preliminary engineering agreement <br />and PE on the stations, maintenance facility, communications and <br />central control facility, layover facilities and related track work. <br /> <br />B. Track and Signal Improvements. <br />1. Background <br />On February 3, 2000, NCDA authorized the issuance of a Request <br />for Proposals for Preliminary Engineering of Track and Signal <br />improvements on the BNSF railroad. Three responses were <br />received and evaluated. A contract with Toltz, King, Dural, and <br />Anderson (TKDA) was approved by NCDA on April 6, 2000. <br /> <br />The work plan for TKDA includes development of plans, <br />specifications and estimates for the full list of fifteen track capacity <br />improvements as proposed by BNSF. It was anticipated, however, <br />that the list of projects actually developed to full PE would be <br />reduced based upon the capacity modeling completed by Mainline <br />Management, Inc. and ultimately agreed to by BNSF. The project <br />timeline was six months beginning with Notice to Proceed. <br /> <br />The contract work effort began with a kickoff meeting on <br />September 6, 2000. The startup work included preparing base <br />mapping and general signal layouts which would accommodate all <br />improvements contemplated by either list. Since the BNSF and <br />NCDA had not reached agreement on the list of capacity <br />improvements, BNSF declined to provide input or review the design <br />of the track and signal improvements. <br /> <br />In February, 2001, the Project Team reviewed both lists of <br />improvements in an attempt to define overlap or similar projects <br />from each list in order to continue cost effective development of <br />engineering plans that would serve both lists. It was apparent that <br />while the base mapping, profiles, plan sheets, and signal <br /> <br />Northstar Corridor Development Authority 21 <br /> <br /> <br />