Transportation Agencies Liaison Committee (TALC)

ACEC/MA's Transportation Agencies Liaison Committee (TALC) works closely with public transportation agencies to streamline and improve project delivery.

TALC usually meets monthly on the 3rd or 4th Wednesday of the month at lunchtime in Boston. When in-person meetings are hold, the cost of lunch is hosted by one member firm each month, as assigned by TECET staff, so that each member firm with employees on the TALC list pays for the cost of the sandwich lunch about once every 3-4 years, even if the employees from that firm are not in attendance.

Due to the size of the committee, with about 420 individuals from ACEC/MA Member Firms as of July 1, 2022, TALC in-person meeting attendance is limited to one person per ACEC/MA Member Firm, plus ACEC/MA Board members. In 2022 and for at least part of 2023, all TALC meetings are being held by Zoom. All TALC member receive emails on transportation issues and are invited to participate in Zoom calls. 

TALC Resources:

6/15/22: MBTA Capital Programs Discussion with Jay Neider - PDF of PPT

4/27/22: MBTA Professional Services Selection Process – DEI  Evaluation Criteria Training

PDF of PPT from MBTA and Armand Resource Group

3/30/22: MassDOT Virtual Public Meetings by MassDOT's Andrea D'Amato, Amy Getchell and others

PDF of PPT

1/25/22: MassDOT IMPACT is designed to encourage public safety initiatives and awareness specific to crash information. Within IMPACT you can engage with crash related data through easy to understand pre-built reports or conduct your own self-driven analysis.

1/19/22:  TALC Meeting Resources: PDF of ACEC National Presentation by Matt Reiffer, ACEC,  on the IIJA

Additional resources from Matt Reiffer at ACEC National:

- ACEC IIJA resource page:  https://programs.acec.org/iija-resources/

- FHWA summary:  https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/bipartisan-infrastructure-law/docs/bil_overview_20211122.pdf

- Rail funding: here is the FRA implementation page:  https://railroads.dot.gov/BIL

- On the appropriations question, AASHTO has a good article on it:  https://aashtojournal.org/2021/12/17/continuing-resolution-complicates-highway-funding/

11/17/21: TALC Meeting resources: PDF of MassDOT Presentation on MassDOT Municipal Grant Programs

9/22/21: TALC Meeting resources:

- PDF of MassDOT Hybrid Meeting Draft Plan from Andrea D'Amato, MassDOT Assistant Secretary for Operational Excellence

- PDF of MALSCE Point Cloud Standards 2021 from Paul Feldman and Steve Wilkes for MALSCE

8/25/2021: PDF of Presentation from Marie Rose, MassDOT Director of Project Management

7/28/2021: 

Liz Williams, Liz, Bob Frey, Kevin Lopes of MassDOT on MassDOT Data Resources

PDF of Presentation from MassDOT

Project Controls for Designers Presented by: Ken Johnson, Deputy Chief – Project Controls

PDF of Presentation from MBTA

7/21/2021: MassDOT List of Design-Build Project Identification-Next Generation Bridge (NGB)

5/7/2021: MassDOT-ACEC/MA-CIM-Briefing on Cape Cod Canal Bridges Project

PDF of Presentation from MassDOT

4/26/2021: MBTA Construction Contract Extended Overhead: Capital Programs Construction Contract Extended Overhead Policy

4/21/2021: Presentation by Cassandra Gascon Bligh, Community Grants Program Administrator MassDOT Highway Division

PDF of Presentation

2/24/2021:  Presentation by David Mohler, Executive Director of Planning, MassDOT

PDF of Presentation

OTP Org Chart as of 2/24/21

2/17/2021: Design Review Memorandum from Chief Engineer Patricia Leavenworth, dated February 12, 2021 on detailed guidance regarding the standard MassDOT project review times to be used for various types of design submissions at different stages of project development.  This information should be used to help establish and maintain project design schedules in an effort to achieve on-time project delivery.

1/28/2021 Luciana Burdi, Massport, Briefing Co-hosted by ACEC/MA, AIA MA, WTS Boston, CMAA and BSCES:  pdf of presentation

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12/16/20 ACEC/MA TALC Meeting Materials Shared:

MassDOT Highway Update

EDC6 Every Day Counts 6  Innovations proposed by FHWA that were discussed at the national virtual summit in December 2020     

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MBTA briefing at 11/18/20 ACEC/MA TALC Meeting Materials Shared:

Capital Programs Support: Updated Design Errors & Omissions Evaluation Process

Contract Administration Guidance- Professional Services Task/Amendment Review – Required Document Checklist

Preparing Invoices - Internal Training Guide: ACECMA TALC 11-18-20

Pre-Audit Findings: ACECMA TALC 11-18-20

 

MBTA Forging Ahead briefing at 10/21/20 ACEC/MA TALC Meeting: ACEC/MA TALC members heard from these MBTA officials: Samantha Silverberg, Deputy Chief Administrative Officer, Jay Neider, Chief of Capital Programs, Laurel Paget-Seekins, Assistant General Manager for Policy

MBTA Org Charts from July 2020

MBTA Capital Projects: DBE Program Monitoring and Reporting - 7-15-20

MassDOT Virtual Public Involvement Presentation - 4-15-2020

MBTA Capital Programs Subdelegation of Authority - 4-15-2020

2-26-20 MEPA/NEPA Webinar Slides

MassDOT Highway Engineering Directives

MBTA Design Standards and Guidelines Website and Directives

Transportation Agencies Liaison Committee Links from recent TALC meetings:

2/26/20 David Hatem Donovan Hatem Briefing to ACEC/MA TALC

2/13/20 MBTA OCE Briefing to ACEC/MA TALC

10/30/19 TALC Meeting with Shannon Greenwell of MassDOT

Presentation Link

10/18/19: Webinar with MassDOT Highway Deputy Administrator/Chief Engineer Patty Leavenworth and Team

PDF of Webinar Presentation

Key notes on Webinar Presentation

7/17/19:

MBTA discussion of Project Development Group (PDG Process)

2-27-19: 

Quarterly STIC (State Transportation Innovation Council) Meeting - slides presented at 2/20/19 STIC Meeting

Massachusetts Business Coalition on Transportation - slides presented at recent meeting

 

8-22-18: T4MA Presentation on Transportation Climate Initiative (TCI) from Chris Dempsey

7-31-18:  MassDOT Highway Issues Proprietary Products SOP (Standard Operating Procedure)

• MassDOT Highway shared their internal SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) on the Use of Proprietary Products: highlighted section is applicable to engineers. Also see: 

• Proprietary Specifications in Public Construction Projects

• Proprietary Spec Summary

6-20-18: MBTA System-Wide Accessibility and The Design Guide to Access Presentation

5-23-2018: ebuilder Presentation from MBTA

2/28/18-  Exciting Things are Brewing at Boston Public Works with Katie Choe, Chief Engineer/Director of Construction Management

4-25-2018-TALC Meeting Presentation: Jackie DeWolfe, Michelle Danila, Andy Paul