Fraud Awareness Conference FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION Corey Walker Office of Program Management Sound Transit Steel Casing Product Substitution Review

Fraud Awareness Conference FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION Seattle Light Rail Project  15.6 Miles from Downtown to Airport  13 stations  35 Light Rail Vehicles  Total Cost $2.7 Billion  FTA Share $500 Million  FFGA awarded 2003  Opened to S. 154 th St July 2009  Airport Station Opened December

Fraud Awareness Conference FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION Project Map 3

Fraud Awareness Conference FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION Tukwila Freeway Route  Approximately 4.9 miles of guideway  87% elevated  187 columns support the elevated guideway  Columns up to 80 feet high  Three types of footings used depending on height and soil type 4

Fraud Awareness Conference FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION Elevated Guideway 5

Fraud Awareness Conference FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION Construction of Guideway 6

Fraud Awareness Conference FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION Steel Casings on Site 7

Fraud Awareness Conference FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION Casing Installation 8

Fraud Awareness Conference FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION Foundation Ready for Concrete 9

Fraud Awareness Conference FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION Foundation Casings  Prevent shaft from collapsing during construction  Provide additional shear strength to resist earthquake forces  Have little effect on ability of column to support the weight of trains and guideway (not counted on in design) 10

Fraud Awareness Conference FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION Product Substitution  Sound Transit (ST) specified 50,000 psi (50 ksi) steel  Subcontractor provided 36,000 psi (36 ksi) steel  ST issued a Non-Conformance report  Subcontractor provided letter indicating that it was 50 ksi steel  Letter was found to be falsified 11

Fraud Awareness Conference FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION ST Response  Designers calculated strength of columns with 36 ksi steel  Columns still provided necessary strength with a reduced factor of safety  Concluded that no additional measures were required to ensure safety 12

Fraud Awareness Conference FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION FTA Oversight  FTA Project Management Oversight Consultant (PMOC) was on project since it began  Two on-site staff, task order manager and technical expert  Reviewed ST Construction Management and Quality Assurance procedures  Visited construction sites weekly 13

Fraud Awareness Conference FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION PMOC Actions  PMOC Confirmed ST construction managers had issued a Non-Conformance report  Checked ST engineers calculations and verified conclusions  Performed independent analysis to ensure structure was safe 14

Fraud Awareness Conference FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION PMOC Analysis  Brought in structural engineering specialist to perform analysis  Made computer model of columns, shafts, casings and foundations with the 36 ksi steel  Ran computer simulation of how the structure would fail when stressed to the point of failure 15

Fraud Awareness Conference FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION Model Results  Columns fail outside of the areas surrounded by the casings  The casings are not the part of the structure that would fail during an earthquake  Therefore, the use of weaker steel in the casings does not impact the ability of the structure to resist the design earthquake  In other words, the safety of the structure is not compromised 16

Fraud Awareness Conference FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION FTA Costs  Expert was not part of PMOC team assigned to monitor project  Charged 202 hours to FTA  Flew from New York to Seattle to review documents, visit site  Total cost was $30,523  Appleby reimbursed FTA for costs of review 17