State to Build New Complex for Transit Agencies

ALBANY—New York State will build a new co-location facility to house the headquarters for the top two state transportation agencies—the New York State Department of Transportation and the New York State Thruway Authority in Albany.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced late last week that the Transportation Resource Center project will involve putting the existing NYSDOT headquarters at 50 Wolf Road back on the tax rolls of the Town of Colonie and Albany County. Construction on the project at the site of the existing New York State Thruway Authority headquarters at 200 Southern Blvd. off Exit 23 of the New York State Thruway is expected to begin by mid-2015. The state did not release a cost estimate for the project. The existing Thruway Authority headquarters is to be demolished.

"In today's economic climate, government must learn to find innovative ways to reduce costs to taxpayers," Gov. Cuomo said. "We recognized early on that merging resources was a key part of increasing the efficiency of state government, and have worked for the past several years to combine state assets where possible. Co-locating these two state agencies is a logical step that will achieve this goal while generating tax savings for hardworking New Yorkers."

The TRC will be completed in late 2017 and will house more than 2,000 employees, including nearly 1,400 from DOT and more than 600 from Thruway. Initially, DOT and Thruway worked with the State Office of General Services to consider co-location at the state-owned building at 50 Wolf Road in Colonie, and after thorough analysis, it was determined that the building configuration could not meet employee or operational needs, state officials note.

The Thruway Authority will utilize a design-build approach for the TRC, resulting in innovative, cost-effective design and construction techniques as well as shorter construction time. Under design-build, teams of designers and builders submit a single bid to complete the project based on detailed owner specifications, and agree to deliver the completed project within a set time frame and at a fixed price. Under this approach, most of the risk relating to overrun costs or delays lies with the contractors. A request for qualifications for the project was issued late last week, and pre-qualified bidders will submit proposals later in the year. A design-build firm will be selected by the end of this year.

Thruway Authority Chairman Howard P. Milstein says, “The Thruway Authority has developed substantial expertise with the design-build process through our ground breaking work on the New NY Bridge to replace the Tappan Zee, the state's first major design-build project. We will use that expertise to deliver as economically as possible a much-improved work setting for Thruway and DOT employees as well as long-term cost savings and synergies for the state and the Thruway Authority.”

Thruway Authority Executive Director Tom Madison says, “While the Thruway Authority will own and operate the Transportation Resource Center, no Thruway toll revenues will be used to support DOT costs relating to the project or ongoing operations, and both Thruway and DOT will see long-term cost savings. The project will be completed without impacting customer service or existing Thruway operations.”

DOT and Thruway offices will be grouped by function within the TRC. Administrative, engineering and operational staff of both entities will be in close proximity, sharing conference rooms, work areas, and other amenities. Functions such as traffic management and emergency response centers will be joined to ensure a more efficient and effective state-wide response to major weather and other emergency events.