Public Employee Press

Union halts privatization in Water Tunnel #3

Earlier this year, professionals at the Dept. of Environmental Protection were concerned about reports that the city would farm out the design work for a major section of its $6 billion water tunnel project.

The biggest public works project in the history of the city — initiated in 1970 and aimed for completion in 2020 — the 60-mile tunnel will bring high-quality drinking water to future generations of New Yorkers.

The in-house staff in Civil Service Technical Guild Local 375 has fought a protracted war to hold onto the design work and construction supervision, although some of it has been farmed out.

So, members were stunned and angered when the threat of contracting out resurfaced recently. At stake this time was the design work for a 6-mile stretch of the tunnel from the Kensico Reservoir in Valhalla in Westchester County to the Bronx.

“We were very concerned,” said Karl Stayna, a Civil Engineer 3 in the Design Dept. at the Bureau of Water Supply, who has worked on the tunnel project since he came to DEP in 1973.

“Everybody heard that they were going to farm out the Kensico portion of the tunnel,” said Soumendra Sen, a Civil Engineer Level 3 with 13 years on the job. “We already have the trained people here, so we didn’t think it was right for DEP to be thinking about farming out the project.”

Alarmed, Sen and other members aired their concerns to Local 375 President Claude Fort when he and a union team visited them this spring.

Local 375 demanded a meeting with management to press the department to keep the work in-house. At the July 2 session with 1st Deputy Commissioner Steven Lawitts, Fort was accompanied by Chapter 13 President Vincent Moorehead, Chapter 8 President Steve Awad and Business Rep Karl Toth.

Fort underscored the local’s position that the in-house staff would bring in the project at a lower cost than consultants, thanks to their expertise and institutional knowledge. He pointed out that in-house design work on the Manhattan section, including thousands of drawings and other documentation, had saved at least $40 million and was competed two years ahead of schedule.

The local estimates that keeping the Kensico work in-house will save the city $57.2 million in design costs alone. The design, construction and construction management budget for the project is $1.3 billion.

After a discussion, Lawitts gave the union team his assurance that DEP would not farm out the project.

“This is a very important commitment,” Fort said. “Scores of our members have devoted their entire careers to the project, ensuring high-quality work and providing accountability for the expenditure of billions of dollars of taxpayers’ monies.”