VIDEO: Raleigh, N.C., to Try Again at Finding Contractor to Build Its First Bus Rapid Transit Line
Raleigh, N.C. faces challenge finding a contractor for its first bus rapid transit line project. After failed bids, city plans to break project into smaller contracts to attract contractors and stay within $90 million budget, delaying completion to late 2028.
For the second time, Raleigh, N.C.'s efforts to find a contractor to build its first bus rapid transit (BRT) line have ended in failure.
Just one company submitted a bid to construct the 5.4-mi. BRT line along New Bern Avenue, and it was at a price city engineers had deemed too high. They are asking the City Council to let them reject the bid and try again.
The delay will push completion of the BRT line to late 2028 at the earliest, more than three years later than planned.
Raleigh officials budgeted $90 million for the project, which entails building special bus lanes and 10 stations with elevated, covered platforms between downtown and a park-and-ride lot off New Hope Road. The city held a groundbreaking ceremony in November 2023 and hoped to begin construction last summer.
But when the city put the project out to bid last spring, not one company made an offer.
After consulting with contractors and with agencies that have built BRT lines in other cities, Raleigh officials decided to divide the work in two, with one contract for the roadwork and another for the stations. They reasoned that would make it easier for builders to concentrate on what they are good at.
In late August, the city began seeking a contractor for the roadwork, which accounts for the bulk of the project and must be done before the stations can be built. The bids were due Oct. 18, and only Raleigh-based Fred Smith Co., a heavy civil builder, made an offer.
The firm said it would do the work for $112.9 million, according to a memo to the City Council from Sylvester Percival, Raleigh's head of roadway design and construction. That was nearly 58 percent higher than a city engineer's estimate of $71.6 million, not to mention more than the city's budget for both the roadwork and the stations combined.
Several contractors had shown interest in the project, and city officials were a little surprised to get only one offer. But it is a busy time for road builders in North Carolina, made more so by the damage done by Hurricane Helene in late September, said Byron Sanders, Raleigh's assistant director of engineering services.
"I think that any time we see a hurricane or some sort of a storm event of significance that comes through the state, a lot of the contracting community … understandably focus on that area," he told the News & Observer. "I do think that Helene and the construction work taking place in western North Carolina likely had an impact on what we saw."
City Develops New Strategy to Find Builders
To entice contractors, Raleigh now plans to break the BRT project into four parts. Clearing vegetation and building the stations would each be separate contracts, while the roadwork would be split among two contracts: one for the new bus-only lanes in the median between Poole Road and WakeMed, and another for the sections downtown and east of the Beltline.
"I'm confident that our approach of breaking this thing down into more digestible pieces will be more attractive to the contractors and ultimately have us be more successful this go-around," Sanders said.
The city also will give contractors more time to finish the project, the News & Observer reported Jan. 3. When it sought bids last spring, the city said it expected the work to be completed in two years. After contractors balked at that, Raleigh will now give them three, according to Het Patel, the city transit planner overseeing BRT.
That means if the city succeeds in finding companies to do the work this year, the New Bern BRT line would not be finished until late 2028, Patel said.
New Kind of Transit for Raleigh, North Carolina
Bus rapid transit was a key component of the Wake Transit Plan endorsed by voters when they approved a new half-cent sales tax for transit in 2016.
BRT combines the lower cost of a bus with some of the benefits of light rail, including level boarding, pre-paid tickets and dedicated lanes and priority at intersections that keep the buses from being bogged down in traffic.
The city has already purchased seven 60-ft. articulated buses designed for the BRT line and does not plan to put them into service until construction is completed, Patel told the Raleigh newspaper.
North Carolina's capital city has received $47 million from the Federal Transit Administration for the New Bern Avenue line, with the rest coming from Raleigh's coffers and the transit sales tax. Sanders said the city will do all it can to remain within the $90 million construction budget.
"If that means we have to do some value engineering to get things back in budget or think of some creative ways to get that done, it's our intent to maintain the budget on this project," he explained.
The New Bern Avenue line would be the first BRT system in the Tarheel State when it is completed.
Additionally, Raleigh plans to build three more BRT lines radiating from downtown to the south, west, and north. When it does, according to Sanders, the city will be better prepared to find companies willing to do the work.
"We are learning a lot in this process," he added. "When you're at the tip of the spear, you start learning some stuff along the way."
