Helping the Federal Transit Administration safeguard federal investment in transit nationwide
At a glance
Bowman Engineering & Consulting, now part of GHD, serves as prime project management oversight consultant (PMOC) for the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), providing engineering, cost analysis and construction management oversight across major federally funded transit programs nationwide, including projects in Orlando, Miami-Dade, Connecticut, Denver and the Pacific Northwest.
The challenge
The FTA invests billions of dollars annually in major transit projects across the country, from new light rail lines to bus rapid transit systems and rail modernization programs. With grantees managing complex, multi-year major investments under FTA's New Starts and related programs, the agency needed independent oversight capacity to confirm these projects were being managed with the technical and organizational capability required to succeed.
The FTA needed a partner who could supplement its own technical staff across multiple regions, monitoring a large and varied caseload of projects from early implementation through preliminary engineering, and flagging risk before it affected schedule, budget or compliance.
Our response
Our team has served as prime PMOC in support of the FTA since 2019, having previously supported the same role as a subconsultant to Kimley-Horn and Booz Allen Hamilton. Working through FTA's Office of Engineering across Regions 4, 8 and 10, we provide continuous oversight, review and evaluation of designated grantees, confirming their processes meet statutory, administrative and regulatory requirements.
Our team monitors grantee progress on major investments, including new starts and rail modernization projects, evaluating whether they are on schedule, within budget and consistent with approved plans and specifications. We support this oversight with design and constructability reviews, scope, cost and schedule reviews, change order reviews, risk assessment and value engineering. This work spans programs including Orlando's LYNX, Miami-Dade Transit, Connecticut bus rapid transit, King County Metro's RapidRide bus rapid transit (BRT), Sound Transit BRT, Utah Transit Authority and Regional Transportation District-Denver.
The impact
Since 2019, our oversight has given the FTA an extension of its own technical staff across three regions, strengthening the agency's ability to protect federal investment in transit projects nationwide. By identifying risk early and supporting grantees through design and construction reviews, our team has helped keep major transit investments across the country on track, on budget and compliant with federal requirements, from bus rapid transit systems in Connecticut and the Pacific Northwest to major rail programs in Denver, Orlando and Miami-Dade.