The LiRo Group Hires John B. McCaffrey as Chief Information Officer
Syosset, NY – The LiRo Group (LiRo), a national, multidisciplinary project and construction management, engineering, architecture, and technology firm, has hired John B. McCaffrey as Chief Information Officer. With 2017 revenues exceeding $400 million, ENR Engineering News-Record magazine currently ranks LiRo as the 15th-largest construction management firm in the United States.
McCaffrey will spearhead the coordination, product development, and marketing, and of LiRo’s comprehensive suite of digital technology services offered to public, institutional, and private clients. LiRo’s technology services include Building Information Modeling (BIM); Virtual Design, Construction, and Operations (VDCO); Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Survey; and Information Technology (IT). He will also oversee the operations, development, and planning of the firm’s internal IT systems.
“LiRo has recognized early on that Information Technology is a critical key to successful management, engineering, and architectural design as well as planning and budgeting of construction undertakings. With an impressive experience in leading large IT operations for both public and private organizations, John McCaffery is uniquely qualified to offer our clients digital tools and systems to accelerate and streamline project design and delivery as well as to support facilities management operations,” said Luis M. Tormenta, PE, LiRo’s Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chairman.
Prior to joining LiRo, McCaffrey worked as Chief Information Officer for Westchester County and as Commissioner of Information Technology for Orange County, both in New York; and as Director of Information Technology for the Village of Skokie in Illinois. He also founded a technology-consulting firm John McCaffrey Associates.
He received an MBA from the Keller Graduate School of Management, DeVry University, in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois; a Master of Science in Network and Communications Management, also from DeVry University; and a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Saint John’s University in Jamaica, New York. He holds graduate certificates in Information Security Management, Electronic Commerce, and Wireless Networking. McCaffrey was recognized as a 2017 Top Government Innovator by Government Technology Magazine and received a 2017 Symantec Cyber Award for Excellence in Government Cybersecurity.
McCaffrey serves on the Westchester County Historical Society Board, the State University of New York Orange Curriculum Advisory Board, New York CIO/CISO Executive Summit Governing Boards and the Westchester County Association Broadband Advisory Committee. He also is a Public Utility Director of Westchester County Emergency Operations and an Advisor for the Orange County, New York Business Accelerator. McCaffrey is a member of the New York State Local Government IT Directors’ Association and the North West Municipal Conference’s Technology Subgroup Long Island Info Systems Management Association.
LiRo’s VDCO team recently opened its new studio and laboratory dedicated to the development and implementation of BIM, visualization, and other digital technologies, located within LiRo’s offices at One State Street Plaza in Lower Manhattan. In addition, in 2017, LiRo established its GIS and Survey Unit, which collaborates closely with the VDCO team, allowing LiRo to lead the national construction industry by integrating GIS with BIM methodologies into a comprehensive visualization and project-and-facilities management tool.
The firm’s VDCO team is currently providing BIM and visualization services for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Capital Construction Division’s (MTACC’s) East Side Access project in New York City. Under a separate contract, LiRo, in a joint venture with Jacobs Engineering Group, has been also serving MTACC as construction manager for the East Side Access project since 2008.
The nearly $10.2 billion East Side Access project will bring Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) service to eight new train platforms and a new eight-block-long, 350,000-square foot passenger concourse approximately 150 feet beneath Grand Central Terminal. When complete, East Side Access will serve approximately 162,000 customers a day, saving each of them up to 40 minutes’ time on their commutes, and significantly reducing overcrowding at Penn Station and relevant west-side subway lines.
As BIM Manager for the effort since 2012, LiRo VDCO has been providing 4D scheduling, logistics, and constructability coordination to MTACC, which acts as an owner for the project. The team has successfully implemented BIM into this colossal project to analyze, visualize, and communicate project geometry, data, and workflows. To date, VDCO has modeled the project in its entirety, and is now using the resulting BIM resources to create visualizations, to coordinate and record laser scans for better as-built survey documentation, and to enhance construction tracking and logistics workflows as well as asset management processes. The VDCO team’s work has revolutionized the way the project’s stakeholders understand this massive undertaking and make decisions on its myriad interrelated components. VDCO’s efforts have also greatly enhanced the level of collaboration among all parties involved in East Side Access construction.
The LiRo Group
The LiRo Group, a national project and construction management, engineering, architecture, and technology firm, was founded in 1983. Headquartered in Syosset, New York, the company operates regional offices throughout New York State, in New York City, Hicksville, Holbrook, Buffalo, and Rochester. LiRo’s offices are also located in Jersey City, New Jersey; Scranton, Pennsylvania; and Stamford, Connecticut. The company employs over 900 construction managers, engineers, architects, planners, BIM and GIS specialists, and other construction and support professionals nationwide. LiRo’s 2017 revenues exceeded $400 million.
LiRo’s current and recent projects in New York City and in the greater New York area include the $10.2 billion East Side Access Long Island Rail Road expansion; the $30 million restoration of Pier A and the $12 million SeaGlass Carousel in Battery Park; the $60 million CUNY School of Architecture; $180 million worth of projects at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, including the National Synchrotron Light Source II; the $228.5 million High Line Park; the new $600 million Kosciuszko Bridge; the new $3.8 billion Tappan Zee Bridge; the $240 million Staten Island Siphon tunnel; the $2.4 billion Number 7 Subway Line Extension; the $220 million Governors Island, New York, Infrastructure Improvements; the $363 million Build It Back post-Hurricane Sandy housing recovery program; the $750 million housing recovery program for the New York State Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery (GOSR); New York City’s $640 million post-Hurricane Sandy Rapid Repairs temporary shelter-in-place program; the State of New Jersey’s $650 million housing Rehabilitation, Reconstruction, Elevation, and Mitigation (RREM) program;
The firm’s projects throughout the U.S. also include construction management services for the Los Angeles Unified School District’s 800-school construction and modernization program; the new Vista Mesa Middle School in Los Angeles; Centinela Valley Union High School District facilities planning and construction program management; the $90 million California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Health Care Facility Improvement Program; the $165 million Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness’ Shelter at Home program; and the $49 million Southern Connecticut State University Academic and Laboratory Building in New Haven, Connecticut.
LiRo’s work in upstate New York includes the $47 million Niagara Falls Municipal Complex and the $50 million Niagara Falls State Park restoration in Niagara Falls, the $78 million Monroe Community College’s Downtown Campus in Rochester, the $49 million renovation of Caudell Hall at the SUNY College at Buffalo, and the $12 million Educational Opportunity Center in Rochester.
Outside of the continental United States, LiRo is currently performing damage assessment and developing scopes of work for the repairs and replacements of roadways and bridges damaged by Hurricanes Maria and Irma on the U.S. Virgin Islands of St. Croix and St. Thomas.
