The MSB’s “Long Range Transportation Plan” goes on and on and on and on. And so does work for the contractor(s).
This item is on the agenda of the May 21st MSB Assembly Meeting. The MSB Planning Division wants to set aside another $171,000 (from unused Dept funds) for transportation planning. What this generally means is outsourcing the planning to contractors. It wants to expand the scope of work for the Transportation Plan project to include a “technical update of the Official Streets and Highway Plan” or OSHP.
Here was my email to the Assembly members about this item:
I noticed this item on the agenda of the upcoming May 21st Assembly meeting.
Now – the contractor is not mentioned by name – but haven’t HDR and Mr. Murph O’Brien been working on the “Long Range Transportation Plan” for many years now? Why isn’t the contractor mentioned by name in these documents?
I thought the LRTP was finally completed.
And now we need to pay another $171,000 for something else?
Maybe a little competition is in order. Perhaps a new RFP should issue?
$171,000 seems like a lot of money to update the transportation plan again.
Maybe Mr. O’Brien could simply join the MSB staff and we could all save a little money.
Or perhaps one of the MSB staff planners could work on this project in house?
* I should have written “REJOIN” as Mr. O’Brien is the former Director of the Planning Dept for the Mat-Su Borough.
UPDATE – the current MSB Director of Planning explained on the Facebook Borough Budget Watch group:
More Background:
Here is info from the Long Range Transportation Plan contract with HDR…This is “Change Order #3” which added $187,000 to the original contract on Dec 1, 2015.
Note: I can’t find the original contract yet (the MSB deleted its meeting agendas from 2014 and back on its website) but the original contract was approved or signed on May 13, 2014. I wonder what the original contract amount was..It must have been significant if Change Order #3 added $187K. Also, I can’t find Change Order #2 on the MSB’s website. Change Order #2 supposed took place in the fall of 2015.
Don’t you mean, that O’Brien should RE-join the MSB staff. The relationship seems a bit incestuous.
https://www.matsugov.us/news/mat-su-planners-recognized-in-transportation
https://www.adn.com/economy/article/alaska-business-people/2010/08/30/
Murph O’Brien has joined HDR as a senior transportation and community planner. He has more than 30 years of experience in Alaska, He has worked in natural resource planning and management with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, served as a senior transportation planner and manager for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, and concluded his government career as the director of planning and land use for the Matanuska Susitna Borough.