Dive Brief:
- California-based contractor Tutor Perini announced on Tuesday that it has secured contracts for four infrastructure projects worth a total of $774 million.
- The projects include an Interstate 74 twin-bridge replacement that will connect Iowa and Illinois ($322.7 million), a storage yard in New York ($291.5 million), a bridge renovation in New York ($82.2 million) and highway improvements in Maryland ($77.9 million).
- The projects range from straight, hard-bid contracts to design-build services. The company is also one of the main contractors for the California High Speed Rail Authority's $64 billion bullet train project that will eventually connect Southern California with Northern California by a three-hour trip.
Dive Insight:
Tutor Perini's subsidiary Lunda Construction will take on the Illinoi-Iowa bridge project, but Tutor Perini will be the contractor of record on the other three, which includes design-build services on the Henry Hudson Bridge project for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
The latest New York state budget expands the use of design-build to all state agencies but excludes New York City, despite proponents' claims that the method can deliver projects on budget and ahead of schedule. City design-build projects are determined on a case-by-case basis.
Earlier this year, Tutor Perini, along with its joint venture partner O&G Industries, also won the $1.4 billion contract to build the second phase of the Purple Line extension in Los Angeles. The 2.59-mile-long line is scheduled to open in 2025.
Tutor Perini also has completed one skyscraper at the massive Hudson Yards development in Manhattan and has another under construction.
Perhaps Tutor Perini's most high-profile project currently underway — both for scope and for the public controversy the project has drawn — is the California bullet train. The high-speed rail has had to overcome logistical and financing hurdles since its early days, and delays in land acquisition by the California High Speed Rail Authority has resulted in about $60 million in change orders thus far.
The project's latest challenge has been brought by state Republicans who are trying to block funding for the electrification of a rail segment that the bullet train will one day use. The CHSRA wanted to use a portion of the original $10 billion voter-approved bond to pay for part of the electrification, but critics filed a lawsuit trying to prevent that work, claiming that it wasn't in the scope of work presented in the original bond. The Federal Transit Administration has also delayed a $647 million grant for the electrification project.
Despite those battles, California initiated a $1.25 billion taxable bond sale last month to help pay for bullet train construction. This marked the first time that officials have tapped that funding source.