Instrumentation and Monitoring Trends in New York City and Beyond

With the construction of large publicly funded infrastructure improvements by public transportation agencies, instrumentation and monitoring contracts in New York City have grown significantly since 2005. Part I of this paper will introduce four large NYC infrastructure projects including South Ferry, East Side Access, the Fulton Street Transit Center, and the 7-Line Extension. These projects and others including the Second Avenue Subway have resulted in a shift in the complexity, scope and procurement of instrumentation services in the metropolitan area. Part II will focus on the lessons learned in developing cost bid proposals and consider the state of current specifications, the technician's role, the impact of minority, disadvantaged or women owned business enterprises, the risk bidders absorb to compete in this market, and the trickle down effect of these large projects on smaller projects. We will examine our approach and our intention of providing improved data interpretation and evaluation. The expansion of the market comes not without the issue of balancing performance against cost, with risk and value being underlying components.