On the high speed rail project, rail authority chairman Lenny Mendonca said the state is set on reducing its reliance on a large network of consultants.
Mendonca’s letter did not say how quickly the governor will scale back use of consultants. It also did not define which “critical” oversight and management functions will be brought back under state control, but it could include contract management, construction oversight and high level engineering.
In 2008, when the rail project was shifting into high gear, the rail authority had a staff of just 10 people. And by 2010 it remained under a dozen, according to former top officials. And the authority still had a relatively miniscule staff as it was preparing to issue the first major construction contracts in the following year.
But the difficulty of undocking from the consultants is not clear. WSP, the state’s so-called rail delivery partner, has 470 people on the project and more than a dozen other consultants are spread out in offices in Sacramento, the Bay Area, Los Angeles and Fresno, doing critical work on the day-to-day operations of the project.
Top engineering experts say the state should have started to build up its expertise years ago, though it is clearly not too late. But it will take a lot of effort and a long time to establish a competent and sizable organization, they say. Currently, the rail authority has more than 40 vacancies, a rate of 20% of its authorized staffing level. The key question is whether top talent will want to work on the project.
This is a developing story. This article will be updated with further details as they become available.
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