New manager picked for $500 million in roadway projects

The engineering firm that oversaw construction of Hidalgo County’s hybrid levee-wall barrier was selected this week to manage more than $500 million in county roadway projects.

The Hidalgo County Regional Mobility Authority selected Houston-based Dannenbaum Engineering as its program management firm to handle all aspects of developing the southern tollway, the La Joya bypass and, eventually, the full loop system around the county’s urbanized core. Dannenbaum, which opened its McAllen office in the 1990s, will effectively act as the staff for the mobility authority, an independent governmental agency formed to develop roadway projects that currently has only one full-time employee.

But RMA Vice Chairman Michael Cano said the selection gives the mobility authority access to a team of professionals who can coordinate and develop all facets of the authority’s roadway plan.

“A program manager is really going to define the process going forward,” Cano said. “We are literally on the cusp of getting these projects to construction.”

Mobility authority board members selected Dannenbaum Engineering as their top choice to manage their roadway program after hearing 30-minute presentations Monday from it and two other finalists — Lockwood, Andrews & Newman and HNBT. Dannenbaum’s selection cleared the way for the authority’s legal counsel to begin contract negotiations that will determine the scope of the firm’s work and potential compensation.

But the role Dannenbaum may soon fill should be similar to the one held by Hidalgo County Roadbuilders, the consortium led by Houston-based developer Gerry Pate that was hired in 2007 to construct the southern portion of the county loop. Pate’s partnership with the authority ended in November when the two were unable to reach a final agreement on a guaranteed maximum price proposal to construct the first segment of the $400 million tollway connecting the county’s international bridges to Expressway 83.

Dannenbaum Engineering, in fact, campaigned for the contract landed by Pate four years ago when the firm’s chances were hurt by its involvement in a never-completed international bridge connecting the Port of Brownsville to Matamoros. In a case that was eventually settled, the Brownsville Navigation District sued Dannenbaum to recoup the $15.4 million it paid them, alleging the firm failed to get the promised Mexican approval for the bridge.

In Hidalgo County, Dannenbaum Engineering will be charged with getting a project under construction for the mobility authority, which has been criticized for spending close to $24 million on planning without putting any pavement on the ground. Mobility authority officials counter that the expenditures have helped them crystallize plans and land more than $100 million in state funding to develop the tollway system, headlined by the Expressway 83 bypass around La Joya and the new route connecting the international bridges to the expressway.

The planned projects are the initial phases of a comprehensive loop around Hidalgo County.

Louis Jones, who heads Dannenbaum’s local operations, said “the number of moving parts” required to develop the authority’s roadway system makes the selection of a program manager a cost-effective approach. In addition to Dannenbaum’s staff, the authority will have access to 10 other firms that are part of its team.

Ramiro Salazar, a founding board member for the authority who was replaced by McAllen banker R. David Guerra last year, was included on Dannenbaum’s team as a consultant.

“We offered the board the best team we could put together,” Jones said. “At the end of the day, we want to get these projects built and operating so we can build more pieces of the loop.”

In opting for Dannenbaum, mobility authority board members cited the engineering firm’s state connections, lack of competing interests and local project experience.

The firm’s principal is James Dannenbaum, a Gov. Rick Perry appointee to the University of Texas System Board of Regents who serves as its governmental liaison. Board members also expressed concern that HNBT — which finished second in the authority’s rankings but is one of the largest such firms in the nation — could not fairly represent Hidalgo County’s interests against Cameron County, where HNBT fills a similar role for the Cameron County Regional Mobility Authority.

And board members also pointed to Dannenbaum’s work in successfully completing the $213 million project that incorporated needed levee repairs into the border wall. The levee-wall project is the firm’s largest to date, bested only by its selection Monday to develop the mobility authority’s roadway system.

“The hope is that with their local knowledge, they can get on the ground faster than an out-of-area team,” said mobility authority Chairman Dennis Burleson, calling them a “needed component” to the authority’s team. “That’s the advantage we hope turns out to be a true advantage.”

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Jared Janes covers Hidalgo County government, Edinburg and legislative issues for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4424.