…being right all the time [1]. But someone’s got to do it.
#unexpectedly
By the way, all of you DFLers that moved to the south west metro; hope you’re enjoying what we went through in the Midway from about 2008 to 2014.
[1] i’m being facetious. Mostly.
The Southwest Metro will also, eventually, enjoy what the Midway went through in 2020.
So this light rail public project is over time and over budget, like virtually every other light rail project.
It would be nice if their was a pseudo-objective way of determining how much LR proponents were lying in real time, like maybe a Vegas over/under of official time & budget accuracy.
For reference, the upgrade of highway 212 that carries far more people than light rail ever could cost about $240 million, about a tenth of what the new death train will carry.
Ah, another mobile “most expensive homeless shelter ever”.
We’re still doing those?
Do we like burning money?
I suggest that to improve the tattered reputation of Southwest LRT, the commissioners rename it “Bde Maka Ska.”
I suggest that to improve the tattered reputation of Southwest LRT, the commissioners rename it “Bde Maka Ska.”
A committee would be happy to look at that possibility. Probably cost $250k.
One other thought is that it’s instructive that cost overruns in highway construction don’t seem to be nearly as common as they are in transit. It’s almost as if they are planning to get approved with the optimistic numbers, and then they’re going to release the real ones over time.
One might wonder whether we could hire a good engineering firm to run the early numbers for current and former projects and see where their errors are, and how we can get the “official” calculators to be a bit more competent and honest.
One trick that the LR people do is maximize or minimize expected ridership depending on context. If they want to say that the LR system riders will pay for the system, they assume every car is packed. But this means added expenses in building and maintaining stations and cars, so when a low cost for those is important, they minimize expected ridership.
When they planned the Honolulu light rail system, they said that ridership would be very high, so it would need no annual subsidies. At the same time, they said that risership would be low, so there was no need to have restrooms & other amenities at the stations.
Another economic debacle by the Democrat party apparatchiks at the Met Clowncil. There have also been significant traffic f$@k ups all along the route. I’ve counted 25 elevation pillars, but I’m sure there are more.
It’s amazing how quickly become inured to fecklessness and incompetency when leftist reprobates take control of a place.
There would have been a bloodbath down here over the mess y’all have accepted so meekly.
It took 10 years for us to agree to a major restoration of our historic downtown area. First, it had to be paid for, up front. Second, the contractor had to agree to a fixed price, and penalties for missed deadlines.
All parties completed their work successfully; city council and manager negotiated a solid contract at a fair price. Second, the county engineers did a very nice job of oversight, spotting a problem with old sewer lines early enough they did not impede the work. Lastly, contractor finished the job, on time and within his budget. Our little downtown is a gem to behold.
No leftists; no union thugs; honest leadership. How things get done.
But Bill . . . without union featherbedding; without cost-plus-contracts; without minority set-asides; without application fees/inspection fees/reinspection fees/approval fees; without carbon offsets, historical injustice remediation fees and a week-long fact-finding trip to Bermuda for the council to take a deep dive into the study of development concepts in a low-stress setting; without all that grift and graft and hand-greasing. . . what’s the point of the project?
The only extra expense approved by the city was the addition of gaslight style street lamps. The contingency budget covered the cost.
None of the vendors or contractors were required to hire any particular gender or race of workers. Just competent ones. Fact finding work was done at city hall.
In fact, nothing that didn’t directly address the work at hand was ever an issue.
Just imagine it.