AI Engineers, Inc. (AIE) is providing the MBTA Engineering and Maintenance Department with General Engineering Consultant (GEC) services on a task order basis.

Task Order #1, 3 & 8, System-Wide Platform Structural Condition Inspection: The AIE team performed a structural inspection of station platforms at all Blue, Red, and Orange Line MBTA stations along with cost estimates to repair any deficiencies at individual 25 ft. sections on each platform. AIE delivered repair plans for 12 Blue Line stations, 26 Red Line stations, and 13 Orange Line stations. AIE also led repair design for all station platforms from Massachusetts Avenue Station to Forest Hills Station under a fast-track EWOL with an accelerated schedule to complete design documents within 52 calendar days from the MBTA’s Notice to Proceed. 

Task Order #2, 5 & 9, Sprinkler System Assessment: AIE is performing the review and design of new fire suppression systems at 11 facilities including 5 stations and 6 bus maintenance facilities. The team inspected each facility to find any current code compliance issues and develop a design scope for new replacement fire suppression and alarm systems. Currently, AIE is designing replacements for 5 of those facilities under Task Order #9. The new systems will be installed while the old systems are still operational enabling the old system to be dismantled once the new system is tested and operational.

Task Order #4, Charlestown Facility Assessment: This included the inspection and evaluation of 12 buildings on MBTA’s Charlestown Campus by a multi-disciplined team including fire protection specialists, structural, mechanical, and electrical engineers, architects as well as code and hazmat specialists.

The scope included providing recommendations for immediate action items to address safety hazards, code violations, and preventive measures; short-term (one to five years) action items recommending improvements needed to correct serious deficiencies; and long-term (> five years) action items that include building improvements and rehabilitation needs to address cosmetic, convenience, preventive maintenance, and life-span issues. FTA Condition Ratings were also provided. 

Task Order #7, Systemwide Sign & Lighting Structures Inventory: AIE provided task-based data collection services to the MBTA. Work includes performing an inventory of all MBTA-owned sign and lighting structures systemwide at transit and commuter line stations (indoor and outdoor), ferry terminals, and the Chelsea SL3 Busway stations. Structures on MBTA maintained parking lots, driveways, yards at the stations, and ferry terminals were also included. In addition to physically locating the structures, web-based tools were developed to collect comprehensive inventory data rapidly and reliably for these MBTA assets in “real-time” and up to three to five times more efficiently than traditional means. Examples of structure data collected included inventory photos, structure location (description and GPS coordinates), structure type, and material.

After parsing and reviewing the collected data, it was exported to the desired formats and submitted to the MBTA for digital review using ArcGIS, a GIS data visualization tool. The data was able to be seamlessly uploaded to Trapeze, the MBTA’s Asset Management System, for efficient tracking of maintenance and condition records.

While simple in concept, the vast scale of the project was a major challenge for the project timeline. Conventional means to collect the required data would not have been adequate. An efficient, scalable, and adaptable method had to be developed to meet the accelerated timeline. As a result, an in-house web-based application was created by AIE that allowed data to be simultaneously and swiftly recorded to a singular online database. This allowed all teams to produce uniform work, the most up-to-date information, and gain instant access to any changes to adapt to the dynamic nature of the project. The type and amount of data can also be easily modified allowing the application to be adapted and used in a wide variety of situations. The successful implementation of this application allowed for over 12,000 structures to be recorded in record time.