By Victoria Hurley-Schubert, Staff Writer
The Transit Task Force began reviewing five submitted bids for a transit study last week.
Proposals ranged in price from $200,000 to more than $535,000. Each bid has additional costs for attendance at more meetings than in the proposal that range from $1,000 to $10,000.
Princeton-based URS offered a total cost of $200,000.
Philadelphia-based Systra offered a total cost of $228,865.
Lawrenceville-based Parsons Brinckerhoff offered a total cost of $239,905.
Newark-based Lea Elliott offered a total cost of $263,270.
Baltimore-based RK&K (Rummel, Klepper & Kahl) offered a total cost of $535,474.
The similarity in pricing stuck the task force members.
”It shows consistency of pricing,” said Kim Jackson, director of parking and transportation at Princeton University.
They will be holding another meeting later in the month to discuss the bids in-depth after task force members have a chance to read the thick stack of paper.
The group will probably not reach a final decision until the bids for a traffic study comes back to look at the total expenditure for both studies. The cost will be split three ways, with Princeton University paying half and each municipality paying 25 percent.
Kevin Wilkes, chair of the task force, is going to work with the planning and engineering staffs to prepare the traffic study request for proposals.

