Portfolio
Serving public and private clients across Texas
The Rural Economic Assistance League (REAL) currently provides bus service encompassing the counties of Aransas, Jim Wells, Brooks, Live Oak, Duval, Refugio, San Patricio, and Bee in South Texas. Real has a ridership of over 200,000 passengers per year, with a fleet of 66 vehicles. Current facilities are udated, and with the continued growth, they have become out of capacity. REAL is planning a new Multimodal Facility in Alice, TX, replacing the current one.
Parra & Co, after a successful completion of the project’s Phase 1 (Proposed Masterplan review), was engaged by Able City once more to provide Civil Engineering services for Phase 2 of the project, as now the funds for the facility have been secured.
The proposed facility includes a 16,964 sq ft Administration Building and a 11,589 sq ft Maintenance Building. The facility will include parking for 120 vehicles, 82 busses, and 22 bicycles.
Parra & Co received the Conceptual Design for the Proposed Facility from the Architect (Able City), and prepared the Site Civil Construction Documents, Stormwater Management Plan, and a Hydrology Report, including the detention basin design. For the Utility Plan, Parra & Co is designing a water line extension.
Parra & Co was engaged by the City of Laredo to prepare a TIGER Grant Application ($12.75M) to be used towards the development of the new Operations & Maintenance Facility of El Metro ($25.7M), located at the intersection of Jacaman and Barlett. Our team prepared a Conceptual Phasing Plan, dividing the proposed facility into 2 phases, as well as potential Cost Reduction and created a Phasing Plan for the overall facility in order to lower costs of phase 1. Using the data provided by El Metro, we obtained a projected cost estimate for the following year. (2017)
Parra & Co wrote the TIGER application on behalf of the City of Laredo and El Metro and tied the application into the City’s comprehensive plan and its coming updates. While this application was not funded, the package was re-purposed and submitted under the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) 5339(b) Discretionary Grant Program in FY16. This submission yielded a $9,875,083 FTA grant award for the construction of the new facility.
As the City was concerned the cash from the grant award may not be readily available, a revised facility plan needed to be considered in order to accommodate a reduced total project budget. The Parra & Co team prepared a scope of work to assist the City in the execution of the grant within the TrAMS system to include concurrence from FTA Region VI in a manner that projected all local investment in the project and maximized the use of the federal funding available.
This project allowed the adjustment of the City’s application according to the reduced amount received by the FTA, the potential land value increase for the facility, and the available matching funds from the City to obtain preliminary approval from FTA to move forward.
Parra & Co provided Project Management and direction between the City of Laredo, El Metro Transit, Google, and the sub-consultant team. Along with the team, Parra & Co provided data creation and formatting services to prepare the GTFS files submitted to Google. Formatting was provided in accordance with Google’s GTFS specifications.
El Metro Transit provides bus service in the City of Laredo, TX. The goal was to have all 22 El Metro Transit Laredo routes schedules available in Google Transit. (Google maps and navigation apps.)
For final delivery, Parra & Co visited with El Metro Transit staff to collect current routes/stops, prepared the schedule, and stops data (GTFS format), and assisted in communications and submittal to Google.
R.E.A.L. Multimodal Transit Facility Drainage, and LEED Certification. Alice, TX
The Rural Economic Assistance League (REAL) currently provides bus service encompassing the counties of Aransas, Jim Wells, Brooks, Live Oak, Duval, Refugio, San Patricio, and Bee in South Texas. REAL has a ridership of over 200,000 passengers per year, with a fleet of 66 vehicles. Current facilities are dated, and with the continued growth, they have become out of capacity. REAL is planning a new Multimodal Facility in Alice, TX, replacing the current one.
The proposed facility includes a 16,964 sq ft Administration Building and a 11,589 sq ft Maintenance Building. The facility will include parking for 120 vehicles, 82 busses, and 22 bicycles. The site is planned as LEED Silver under the LEED v4/2019-Building Design and Construction.
Parra & Co, after a successful completion of the project’s Phase 1 (Proposed Masterplan review), was engaged by Able City (architect) once more to provide Civil Engineering services for Phase 2 of the project, as now the funds for the facility have been secured.
Our team received the Conceptual Design for the Proposed Facility from the architect, and is preparing the Site Civil Construction Documents, Stormwater Management Plan, a Hydrology Report including the detention basin design, and the LEED Feasibility Report. For the Utility Plan, Parra & Co is designing a water line extension.
The challenge for this site was that the County currently does not have a stormwater network there, but one is planned to be in place within the next five years. Our client’s development will be ready two years before that. Our team then planned a combination of temporal and permanent strategies so when the network is finalized the site can be connected to it.
*Rendering courtesy of Able City
El Metro Transit Tiger Grant & Intergovernmental Coordination Assistance. Laredo, TX
Parra & Co was engaged by the City of Laredo to prepare a TIGER Grant Application ($12.75M) to be used towards the development of the new Operations & Maintenance Facility of El Metro ($25.7M), located at the intersection of Jacaman and Barlett. Our team prepared a Conceptual Phasing Plan, dividing the proposed facility into 2 phases, as well as potential Cost Reduction and created a Phasing Plan for the overall facility in order to lower costs of phase 1. Using the data provided by El Metro, we obtained a projected cost estimate for the following year. (2017)
Parra & Co wrote the TIGER application on behalf of the City of Laredo and El Metro and tied the application into the City’s comprehensive plan and its coming updates. While this application was not funded, the package was re-purposed and submitted under the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) 5339(b) Discretionary Grant Program in FY16. This submission yielded a $9,875,083 FTA grant award for the construction of the new facility.
As the City was concerned the cash from the grant award may not be readily available, a revised facility plan needed to be considered in order to accommodate a reduced total project budget. The Parra & Co team prepared a scope of work to assist the City in the execution of the grant within the TrAMS system to include concurrence from FTA Region VI in a manner that projected all local investment in the project and maximized the use of the federal funding available.
This project allowed the adjustment of the City’s application according to the reduced amount received by the FTA, the potential land value increase for the facility, and the available matching funds from the City to obtain preliminary approval from FTA to move forward.
El Metro Transit into Google Transit. Laredo, TX
Parra & Co provided Project Management and direction between the City of Laredo, El Metro Transit, Google, and the sub-consultant team. Along with the team, Parra & Co provided data creation and formatting services to prepare the GTFS files submitted to Google. Formatting was provided in accordance with Google’s GTFS specifications.
El Metro Transit provides bus service in the City of Laredo, TX. The goal was to have all 22 El Metro Transit Laredo routes schedules available in Google Transit. (Google maps and navigation apps.)
For final delivery, Parra & Co visited with El Metro Transit staff to collect current routes/stops, prepared the schedule, and stops data (GTFS format), and assisted in communications and submittal to Google.
