Sahba Azad

Client: Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) - Capital Projects

Project Manager at BART manages and directs the Capital Projects. The focus of this role is on Train Control Division, which consist of a set of Capital Projects including BART’s VHLC & NSMUX System upgrade, MUX cables Replacement, Replacement of Coverboard & Platform Antennas,

Job Responsibilities: Project Manager is responsible for managing Capital projects with Train Control division at BART that are funded by FTA, and to provide formal reporting, which accurately reflects the status of the projects to the Program Manager. The project management & reporting responsibilities include:

• Hold weekly/bi-weekly meetings with project teams to facilitate communication across various departments, verify completion of work, and plan for the next steps.
• Write Contracting Plans & Executive Decision Documents for Board Authorization when entering new agreements/contracts with outside agencies, such as Alstom.
• Process and manage the procurement process for Service Agreements with outside agencies, or Material Purchase from qualified vendors.
• Communicate with projects’ schedulers and perform a QC review of each project’s monthly schedule update to ensure accuracy of projects’ timeline and milestone completions and submit project schedule rebaseline request to Program Management, if needed.
• Perform each Project’s Estimate to Complete (ETC) update on quarterly basis.
• Perform each Project’s Earned Value Management (EVM) for a monthly update.
• Perform each Project’s required FTA Capital Project updates quarterly.

Client: Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) - Capital Projects

Assistant Program Manager at BART supports managers with oversight of Capital Projects, with following duties & responsibilities:

• a) Attend project progress meetings with BART PM and help in handling day-to-day coordination. Take meeting minutes, prepare to-do lists from meetings, and distribute meeting minutes as directed.
• b) Provide procedural, and administrative support to Project Staff.
• c) Reserve/schedule conference rooms and attend weekly progress status meetings with the design teams and stakeholders.
• d) Track, review, and update project schedules based on input from design teams and other stakeholders.
• e) Assist with creation, and ongoing updates of Project Execution Plan, Contracting Plan, and Risk Management Plan
• f) Provide schedule updates and prepare biweekly and monthly reports.
• Review the project deliverables for completeness and route the deliverables to BART reviewers and Subject Matter Expert (SME). Collect all the comments from reviewers and SME in Comments Resolution Form (CRF) by the due date and distribute to the deliverables’ originators.

Client: Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) - Communication Based Train Control - CBTC

Project Description: The BART CBTC System is part of a broader Transbay Corridor Core Capacity Program. The Program is a proven railway signaling system that makes use of the telecommunications between the train and trackside equipment for traffic management and infrastructure control.

Job Responsibilities:

• Addressed operations and access.
• Worked with District stakeholders to develop plans for operational accessibility to both right-of-way and facility work in compliance with contractual specifications.
• Addressed the planning of project requests for storage of on-rail vehicles and scenario-based planning of operational use of on-rail vehicles within the construction limits.
• Addressed short and long-term planning for continuous and ongoing development of the Contractor Look Ahead Schedule with timely delivery to District support stakeholders.
• Planned, developed, and executed site visits, as needed, with interfacing projects.
• Managed the weekly submission of System Access Requests with the associated coordination of maintenance support, BART operations liaisons, engineering, and transportation partners.
• Developed and delivered a site-specific work plan (SSWP) and interim operating procedure.
• Assisted the contractor with development of SSWP’s via joint meeting discussions during draft review of the document.
• Delivered operational plans for the development and integration of Interim Operational Plans (IOP) to ensure impact on District operations were communicated, accepted, and then seamlessly implemented.

Client: Caltrain Modernization and Electrification Program

Project Description: This project involved the Caltrain modernization program including the Peninsula Corridor Electrification project and other modifications for improving the performance, efficiency, capacity, safety, and reliability of service.

Job Responsibilities:

• Provided construction oversight on the Caltrain modernization/electrification project specific to the conflict resolution of design and construction of the Overhead Catenary Systems (OCS) foundation installation.
• Wrote and issued field orders for the purpose of conflict resolutions during the OCS foundation installation.
• Responsible for responding to the contractor’s RFI’s.

Client: California High Speed Rail Authority - Construction Packages 1, 2, 3, 4

Project Description: This contract focused on project management of Construction Packages of 1, 2, 3, and 4 for the California High Speed Rail project.

Job Responsibilities:

• Review and coordination of comments to design variance requests.
• Review and coordination of comments and responses to RFI’s, design submittals (60%, 90%, RFC); attending and following up on action items from the Interface.
• Coordination Workshop meetings hosted by the contractor and Construction Management team; assisting and reviewing of engineering technical directive letters.
• Coordinating and presenting comment resolution meetings among all parties involved (project Construction Management team, Design-Build contractor, and High Speed Rail Authority engineering staff).
• Assisted in the development of Seismic Design Criteria for various structure types and their components, as well as assisted in the development of track structure interaction design criteria to meet the goal of safe train operation during different levels of seismic event.

Client: Sound Transit -Structural Analysis of Homer Hadley Bridge, Seattle, Washington in Highly Seismic Zones

Project Description: This project focused on high-end bridge seismic analyses for the retrofit of Homer Hadley Floating Bridge, in Seattle Washington.

Job Responsibilities:

• As a support engineer, performed 3D nonlinear seismic Soil-Foundation-Structure Interaction (SFSI) analysis for instrumented bridges with complex foundation systems. Provided analysis and support for several state bridge projects which included development of column moment-curvature relations and push-over analyses, per Caltrans Seismic Design Criteria (CSDC).
• Analysis and design of superstructure per the AASHTO LRFD specification.