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Commissioners question $5.47M CEI increase for Dadeland South Intermodal Station
Summary
A late addition to the committee agenda sought to increase a construction‑engineering and inspection (CEI) contract with BCC Engineering to about $5.47M for Dadeland South. Staff said the increase pays for added scope — EV charging, evacuation and permitting changes — and matches a roughly $77M design‑build project; commissioners asked for further oversight of PSAs.
A last‑minute agenda item asked commissioners to authorize Supplemental Agreement No. 1 with BCC Engineering LLC, increasing the vendor’s construction‑engineering and inspection (CEI) contract to $5,467,817.92 to support the Dadeland South Intermodal Station project.
Joseph Hernandez, deputy director of the Department of Transportation and Public Works, told the committee the amount covers CEI services only — inspectors and engineers who review specifications, monitor contractor schedules, and process billing — not the underlying construction. "This is specific to the construction engineering and inspection," Hernandez said, adding the supplemental matches additional work the design‑builder proposed and new permitting requirements.
Hernandez said the design‑build project itself is about $77,000,000 and that the CEI contract will total roughly $5.5 million to provide oversight. He described two timing details that raised cost: an initial CEI term of roughly 300 days plus an additional 264 days added to the construction schedule, bringing the professional services work close to two years. When commissioners converted the total into a monthly figure, they calculated approximately "$200,000 and change" per month for the vendor.
Commissioners pressed for why the scope increased. Hernandez pointed to operational changes — modifications to bus alignment, escalator/elevator and evacuation infrastructure — and to updates in national fire‑safety standards tied to electric‑vehicle charging stations that were not in effect when the project was first scoped. He said the county approved additional design scope in November and this CEI supplemental is the accompanying contract cost.
Several commissioners thanked staff for bringing answers despite the late item, but also raised a broader oversight concern about growing professional services agreements. Commissioner Cohen Higgins said she would "take a very deep dive into our transportation budget" and review PSA practices, and other commissioners signaled they would examine whether time‑and‑materials PSAs remain appropriate for large projects.
The committee did not take a final vote on the CEI supplemental during the segment of the transcript provided; commissioners recorded their questions and requested fuller documentation and future oversight as the matter moves forward.
