Aspen: VelociRFTA BRT

Mike Hermes: VelociRFTA Project Manager

After receiving his bachelor’s degree in business finance and real estate from Colorado State University, Mike Hermes worked for 25 years in the real estate and construction industries where he learned a wide range of construction techniques, contract management and project management skills that served him well as project manager.

Hermes started working at RFTA in 2001 and was appointed the VelociRFTA’s project manager in 2009 after the project’s planning phase was completed. At the time the organization had no experience managing large, federally funded projects so the staff at RFTA had to learn these skills on the job. He had never been responsible for such a large and complex project, and he found it challenging to learn and apply all the FTA’s relevant processes, rules, and regulations.

Hermes is considered both a “people person” and “versatile director”, someone who is able to bring teams of experts together to take on a project. His deputy project manager, Angela Henderson, said that Hermes’ strength is that he “sees the big picture” and has a “long-term vision.” He doesn’t just consider short-term implications, she said, but also how something will play out in 50 years. She described his “uncanny ability” to understand how the “political, personality and physical aspects of a project” are related and then “make things come together.”

Angela [Kincade] Henderson: Deputy Project Manager

In 2007, Angela Henderson started at RFTA as an administrative assistant working for Hermes and RFTA’s staff attorney. She has a college degree in accounting and had previously managed multiple projects at a Colorado Airport. With six children at home and needing to take care of a sick mother-in-law, she said, “I was looking for an easier job where I could go home at 4:30.” Given her project management experience, though, she was asked to become a project manager of a multi-use trail that RFTA was constructing along a railroad right-of-way.

Henderson did not exactly volunteer to work on the VelociRFTA project. When asked why she first started working on the project in 2008, she quipped, “I missed a meeting and was assigned the project.” She managed certain project elements including acquiring rights-of-way, preparing manuals, and ensuring the work met local building codes. Henderson is currently the assistant director of project management and facility operations.

Henderson talked about traits that made her successful. “You need to stand behind a decision and defend it. You can’t go into this if you are the least bit fragile. You need a hard shell to go up against jurisdictions. I have a pretty strong personality but I’m professional, courteous and civil. I’m also steadfast and will defend us to nth degree to get things done in the best interest of the taxpayers.” Henderson said when she hires people, she looks for the same traits that made her successful. She said, “I want them to stand up as I do. We have lots of areas where we need that strength of character.”

Hermes said Henderson has “strong people skills, an incredible work ethic, and she is able to figure out any problem she is assigned. Angela has a very wide variety of skills and experience, and she can talk with electricians, politicians, and the FTA with equal skill.”

Other Members of the VelociRFTA Team

Dan Blankenship (CEO). Kent Blackmer and John Hocker (Operations Directors), Kenny Osier (Fleet Maintenance Director), David Johnson (BRT Assistant Project Manager & Planning Director) Phil Schultz (IT Director) John Tangen (Finance Director) Dawn Mullally Chase (Marketing and Creative Manager), Jason White (Planner), Amy Skinner (Business Specialist).

Henderson had opportunities to leave the Aspen area and make more money, but she said she likes the region’s quality of life and wanted her children to have a stable life, growing up. She has lived in the area since the 1980s. Many of RFTA’s directors have stayed on for 30 or 40 years, she observed, because they feel that they are doing something meaningful. She said, “RFTA has its challenges, but it’s a good place to work.”

Hermes said most of the project team is still working at RFTA, ten years after the BRT project was completed. He gave a few reasons for RFTA’s high level of retention. First, RFTA is one of the region’s largest employers and it provides good compensation and benefits. Second, RFTA is an organization that has had steady growth with stable leadership (its CEO announced his retirement in December 2023 after 34 years at RFTA and its predecessor). Third, RFTA is a very progressive organization and willing to take risks and adopt new cutting-edge knowledge.

RFTA brought in HNTB to help them design the BRT system and manage all the FTA-related processes. Wayne Feuerborn, who managed these efforts, has a master’s in urban planning and design and two decades of experience before managing the project’s design process. Hermes said that Feuerborn “was fabulous.”

HNTB finalized plans and prepared the final designs. They helped RFTA hold charettes with communities, all of whom wanted bus stops with an inviting, mountain feel to them. The communities delved into very specific details including the proposed furniture, walls, lighting, and plantings.

HNTB also helped RFTA get ready for its meetings with the FTA and its PMO contractor, and during the construction phase, HNTB ensured that the work was consistent the intent of the design.

HNTB designs different types of projects (e.g., stadium and BRT projects). Feuerborn said that designers tend not to switch between project types because they require their own set of skills and experience. Likewise, construction requires its own skill set.

Now a senior vice president at the firm, he said finding experienced project managers is extremely difficult. He said designers need about six years to gain their foundational skills and then another four years to hone them. At that point, they learn how to manage and are ready to take on important assignments.

Feuerborn said that VelociRFTA was the largest project that RFTA had ever done. He said, “they staffed up and figured it out. They had an adept team who were capable of thinking through items, better than most transit teams. We helped them be successful.”

Other Consultants:

Parsons Transportation Group (preliminary planning), Bluegreen, Noelhouse Creative, Schmueser Gordon Meyer, Michael Baker Jr (designer of record), Zgroup Architects, Connect One Design, and Sopris Engineering.

Hermes said, “managing consultants is one of the most difficult tasks a public employee can undertake. Consultants are there to provide you with technical expertise your agency lacks and to help you design and build your project, but they are also there to make money for their firm and it’s a balancing act to keep costs under control.”

HNTB has its own learning and development center where it provides project manager training. Feuerborn said, “we have our own delivery approach.”

Rather than hire staff it might not need once the project ended, RFTA chose to hire a consultant to design and manage several of the project’s more technical elements. Since RFTA did not manage federally funded projects on a regular basis, it also needed help completing documents (e.g., grant award, certifications, assurances), and ensuring it adhered to rules and processes (e.g., real estate, procurement, construction.)

Based on his experience, Hermes believes that a blended team works best for small agencies attempting federally funded projects similar to the VelociRFTA. The project manager and the persons responsible for construction and procurement should all be staff members. He said, “I would fill in the rest of the project team with consultants to provide expertise in specialty areas such as IT, land acquisition, architectural and engineering services, and other technical needs.” Knowing Colorado DOT’s regulations was vital since the BRT was constructed and operates along the state highway’s right-ofway; HNTB provided that expertise related to both design and construction.

One of the keys to RFTA’s success was the strong support the project received from the community within RFTA’s jurisdictions. The housing market, geography, and culture all played a part.

Aspen has one of the most expensive housing markets in the world. In recent years, the median home price has exceeded $2 million, approximately five times higher than the U.S. median. As a result, many Aspen workers live 40 miles or more away from their jobs.

Located in the Roaring Fork Valley, most of the residential and commercial development in the area is along the four-lane State Highway 82. Because widening this highway was not a practical option, transit was seen as the only way to minimize congestion and accommodate more development. Another reason why people supported the BRT is because of a lack of parking in Aspen. The city, which is known for its environmental sensitivity, would rather have more workers and visitors use transit than build more parking facilities.

Feuerborn noted how the project was unusual for a rural transit agency. The region set a maximum level of average daily traffic and the only way to achieve its goal was to expand transit on the corridor. The three counties, eight municipalities, and Colorado DOT were all in sync about the project. He noticed there was a common goal across the corridor even though each community had its nuances and idiosyncrasies (especially those related to solving their own local mobility issues.)

Hermes explained how and why the project (unlike many other transit projects in the U.S.) received very broad support across incomes, geography and political ideologies. The city of Aspen tends to be very liberal in its political views and is supportive of transit in general. Although Garfield County residents tend to be much more conservative, they were excited about the project’s CNG component because the county has a large number of active oil and gas wells. The project was also seen across the region as a way to reduce traffic on local streets and avoid the need to widen local roads. Moreover, the region’s residents did not want to see more cars on Highway 82 while the ski and hospitality industries wanted improved bus service to ski resorts.

RFTA’s culture helps explain both the organization and the project’s success. RFTA has a history of innovation including testing and deploying advanced vehicle technologies in its buses. In 1996, RFTA was named Mass Transit Magazine’s “Best Mass Transit System of North America” and in 2012 it was designated a White House Transportation Innovator Champion of Change.

Henderson said the board is environmentally conscious and “wants the staff to be thoughtful and go out looking for the newest and best ways to do things.” She said, “It’s been like that since I started here.” Feuerborn, providing an outsider’s perspective, referred to RFTA as “very progressive.” The region’s culture encourages innovation according to Hermes. He thinks there is a correlation between the adventurous outdoor sports popular with the area’s residents and a tendency to be risk takers and environmentally conscious.

Hermes noted that RFTA takes on projects that are leading edge and innovative (even if they might be less cost efficient than standard technologies), because citizens of the area and the RFTA board want the agency to be a leader in technology and innovation. He said RFTA is often selected to receive grants “because at times we are on the leading edge of technical innovations.” He added, “that being a technological leader makes it more interesting to work here.”

The CNG component of the VelociRFTA is one example of RFTA’s innovation. Despite the high up-front cost of building a CNG fueling station, RFTA decided to use CNG buses for numerous reasons. First, based on a life-cycle cost analysis, CNG was expected to be less expensive than its other two options (diesel or diesel/electric hybrid). Second, the price of diesel fuel was volatile, and RFTA wanted to shift to a wider variety of fuels in case of price increases. Third, CNG was locally available and as noted above, it appealed to Garfield County. Fourth, at the time, CNG was a new and innovative technology. Fifth, it appealed to the environmental community.

In three separate interviews, Hermes, Henderson and Feuerborn all described RFTA before the VelociRFTA project as a small, rural transit agency and noted that FTA’s funding for the BRT project was by far the largest grant RFTA had ever received.

Feuerborn remembered, “They had log stumps rather than seats at bus stops. Paddles with reflective tape were left at bus stops so that passengers during a snowstorm could wave them to flag down a bus.” Henderson said, “Most of the RFTA staff had been here since RFTA parked buses in a barn and a local family warmed them up for us.”

As part of the project, RFTA included new fare collection systems and software to help modernize bus ticket sales and bus fare collection as well as improve the reporting of passenger counts and bus travel times. The software also helped RFTA manage route scheduling, asset management and vehicle maintenance The bus service also became much more sophisticated; for example, the BRT schedule was designed so that is would coordinate with local bus services and minimize wait times when transferring from one service to another.

Besides the inclusion of CNG powered buses, the project included other technologies new to RFTA, such as transit signal priority equipment, slip lanes that allow buses to get around traffic bottleneck, and real time bus location information. Within a few years, RFTA became a much more sophisticated agency with more tech-savvy managers.

The project had a number of technical obstacles to overcome as the project was developed. One challenge was the ticket vending machines at the bus stations. RFTA had never used them before and when they were first installed, the paper froze in the machines because they were not designed for very cold weather.

Installing the transit signal priority system was challenging because the local Colorado DOT regional office had never designed and deployed one. It has proven demanding to keep the system operational and all of RFTA’s bus drivers trained on how to use it.

The addition of CNG powered buses made the project more complicated and expensive. Because the technology was so new, RFTA had to address numerous concerns from local building and fire officials. Only one other U.S. transit agency, in Syracuse, had ever built an indoor CNG fueling facility. The buses initially had issues operating on Aspen’s steep hills and its high altitude, especially during the winter. RFTA also found it challenging to train RFTA’s facilities staff how to manage and repair the CNG compression, fueling equipment and buses.

Federal procurement requirements add expense and complication. Hermes said that local contractors were not familiar with many of the federal requirements and contractual clauses (such as Buy America) that are associated with federal funds. He said local contractors were hesitant to bid on projects when they saw more than 100 pages of FTA required terms and conditions, and the contractors were surprised to learn that they could not purchase Canadian products or steel from India as part of the project. The federal procurement and construction rules deterred some local contractors from bidding on the project and those that did bid priced them higher to cover the risks associated with the federal rules and regulations.

Henderson said, for the most part, the FTA was easy to work with. RFTA mostly dealt with FTA’s Region 8 office in Denver except on real estate acquisition issues when it worked with the FTA’s headquarters. She said that the FTA was very flexible in adjusting regulations because the Very Small Starts program at the time was new. Projects seeking funding in this program had to meet all the eligibility requirements of Small Starts, but have a total capital cost of less than $50 million. Note that this program was discontinued.

Although Hermes and Henderson commented about how long it took to prepare the required project management plans, Henderson said “I still go back and look at the documents.” They help her manage the facilities, see what RFTA committed to support, and remember why they made certain decisions. She said, “Mike and I did a lot of work putting it together, but it was very valuable and the work was so important.”