State Orders Review of Consultant's Train Work

By Colleen Heild

Tuesday, February 7, 2006

State transportation chief Rhonda Faught has ordered a review of a consultant's work on the Rail Runner commuter train after learning the firm was working for BNSF Railway on another project in New Mexico.

The state has paid HDR Engineering at least $2 million to advise it on environmental risks and other issues involved with buying track and right of way from BNSF Railway for the Rail Runner.

The Omaha-based firm has also been doing engineering work for BNSF's announced $50 million construction of a second track through Abo Canyon east of Belen. The amount BNSF has paid the firm has not been disclosed.

HDR disclosed its work for Burlington when it sought the state contract in 2004. Officials with the Mid-Region Council of Governments, which awarded the contract on behalf of the state, said they didn't see it as a problem.

But Faught said Monday she had not known about HDR's work for the railway until she was asked about it recently during a meeting with Journal editors and reporters.

She said she ordered the independent review by another company because she was concerned about even the perception of a conflict of interest.

"I don't think there's anything slanted with it," Faught said of HDR's work for the state. "But I want to feel comfortable. This (Rail Runner) is a project that I am proud of and I want to set everyone else's mind at ease that they (HDR) are working for us."

Faught said her attorneys told her there is nothing illegal.

"But I do have a problem with it," she said, explaining her decision to have the work reviewed.

Legislators and legislative staff expressed surprise when informed that HDR also worked for the railway.

Rep. Larry Larrañaga, R-Albuquerque, a consulting engineer and former state highway secretary, said he was concerned by HDR's dual role.

"You can't serve two masters at the same time," he said.

Steve House, operations manager of HDR Engineering in Albuquerque, said there was no breach of ethics by his company. He said he welcomed the review.

House said different employees have been assigned to the two projects but some do work out of the same Albuquerque office.

"We, like all engineering companies, do have a lot of different clients and some of their paths cross at times," he said. "Ours is a very professional, moral industry so it's all based on our professionality."

HDR's duties under the state contract included evaluating environmental problems in the first 49 miles of track and right of way.

The company's final report states that it found no significant contamination problems for which the state would be responsible, according to a Rail Runner Web site.

HDR was to look for hazardous materials, such as fuel, heavy oil and grease, along with pesticides, solvents, heavy metals, nitrates and other industrial chemicals.

According to a project update, the company also did work on station design, and reviewed road crossing safety issues and related "cost estimates from the BNSF to insure that they were in line with comparable railroad improvements."

Faught said a different company was awarded the contract for environmental work on the Bernalillo to Santa Fe phase of the project, but HDR and another firm recently won the contract for engineering.

Council's role
The Richardson administration asked the Mid-Region Council of Governments to handle Rail Runner planning and hiring as an agent of the state's transportation department.

The council is an association of local governments within Bernalillo, Sandoval, Torrance and Valencia counties.

Chris Blewett, the council's director of transportation and planning services, defended the hiring of HDR during the recent meeting with the Journal.

Blewett said it would be difficult to find a company with required expertise that doesn't have a "contract with Burlington Northern or Union Pacific railway."

"It's the nature of the beast," he added.

Faught said Monday she has learned that several of the national firms that submitted proposals have contracts with train companies, but it appeared that only HDR was working for BNSF in New Mexico.

Seven other national companies bid for the contract, but Blewett said their proposals weren't available for public inspection because they have been destroyed.

Blewett said his agency usually retains only the records of the successful bidders.

"We get rid of the losing ones," he said. "I don't know what we do in all cases, but after a while, especially after a year or so they end up just taking up a lot of space."

Blewett's boss, Mid-Region Council of Governments executive director Lawrence Rael, said in a telephone interview Monday evening that Blewett wasn't involved in the procurement and was mistaken about the proposals being destroyed.

Rael said the unsuccessful proposals were in the archives but had not yet been located.

State agencies are required to keep such materials for at least three years, and a destruction order from the state's records administrator is required before disposal.

State records administrator Sandra Jaramillo said Monday no request for such an order has "come across her desk" from the Mid-Region Council of Governments.

Faught said Monday she didn't know anything about the proposals being destroyed.

"But I can tell you that we (the DOT) need to be more involved than what we have been," she said. "I'm the one that has to answer the questions (about the project). I'm really dependent on them (COG) to provide me the answers."

Rael said Faught's department has been involved in every procurement.

During the meeting with the Journal, Rael and Blewett said that, to avoid a conflict, the same HDR employees haven't been working on both projects.

But Larrañaga said that doesn't go far enough.

"It's still the same company managed by the same people," he said. "It just gives the appearance of a conflict."

The state last November agreed to pay $75 million for nearly 300 miles of BNSF track, with the first $50 million for the Belen to Bernalillo line and several other properties.

The closing on the Belen-to-Bernalillo property was to occur last month but has been postponed while the state Attorney General's Office reviews the purchase.