Austin’s CapMetro awards construction contract to Jay-Reese Contractors

Rendering of the proposed station in downtown Austin.

Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority (CapMetro)

Jay-Reese Contractors won a $36.8 million contract from the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority (CapMetro) to build a new light-rail station in downtown Austin, Texas.

The project promises to be a complicated one. In the initial stages, contractors will begin building a temporary station along tracks east of Red River Street in April. That will also require rerouting the city’s Lance Armstrong Bikeway. Then in June, Jay-Reese, which is based in Austin, will then begin constructing an additional track between the Plaza Saltillo Station and the temporary downtown platform. Later the company will build the new, permanent station. That structure is scheduled to open in the Spring of 2021.

The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority (CapMetro) awarded the contract at its Feb. 25 meeting. CapMetro said Jay-Reese was one of only three firms to respond to the agency’s RFP in August.

Capital Metro will pay $28.68 million of the contract costs, according to local media reports. At least part of those funds will come from a $50 million Texas Department of Transportation grant. The city of Austin will pay slightly more than $2 million for utility betterments and allocate $6.14 million as contingency funding.

The existing downtown station is the busiest of the nine on the CapMetro’s system. The new station will feature parasol structures mounted on columns. The pentagonal roof atop each column provide overhead protection for riders as they wait for, enter or exit the train cars. In addition, CapMetro plans to set the new track 18”-22” below grade so that the platform will be even with the sidewalk.