by Bob Walsh
Way
back when dinosaurs still roamed the earth and Arnold Schwarzenegger
was governor the voters of the formerly great state of California got
conned into approving a HIGH SPEED RAIL project as a ballot initiative.
It was such a great, such a EUROPEAN idea, they couldn't help
themselves. One interesting thing, performance characteristics were
written into the law permitting the damn thing to be built.
It
became obvious almost from the start that it could never meet the speed
and capacity requirements built into the law and the cost would be
hellaciously over what was projected. Despite numerous court challenges
the project continues, sort of. (The courts ruled that the project has
not yet been completely and totally fucked to death so the opponents
could not say it had failed. Yet.)
The
state got a buttload of cash from the feds for the project, which even
Governor Gavin now admits will never be anywhere near as wonderful as it
was suppose to be. But he doesn't want to give the feds their money
back. So in theory we will end up with a not quite high speed,
definitely high cost, rail line about 25 miles long from North Buttcrack
to South Buttcrack in the vicinity of Fresno. How often have you
needed to get from North Buttcrack to South Buttcrack in a big hurry,
and not have a car when you get there? (It is actaully from Merced to
Bakersfield. Same thing pretty much.)
Fast
forward a bit. There is a bridge, about 636 feet long, being built as
part of the project. It is the Road 27 Bridge. It is supposed to carry
ordinary road traffic over the railroad right of way. The bridge,
which is relatively new as bridges go (four years) is falling apart.
Literally. The tension cables are breaking. The bridging company has
had to put in supports from below to keep the damn thing from falling
into the BNSF tracks.
The bridge is so dangerous a stop work order was issued back in November.
There
are a total of FIVE separate layers of consultants on this bridge
project. According to the U C Berkeley civil engineering program any
one of those layers of consultants could have and should have spotted
the problems. None did.
Among
other problems with this one bridge have been contaminated concrete,
incorrect bridge alignment and missing steel rods in the concrete
piers.
A state audit in
2018 kicked the snot out of the HSRA (High Speed Rail Authority) for
over-reliance on outside consultants and experts.
Due
to the multiple layers of oversight it may never be possible to say who
actually screwed the pooch. Field change notices were issued with very
little if any competent review. These notices apparently regularly
did not make it up the chain of command and nobody at the top noticed,
or cared.
In any event
the Road 27 Bridge Project is a mess. A total of 72% of the contract
requirements that were actually examined were found to be in
non-compliance. Yet still the project continues. I guess they are
anticipating a great need for sort-of high speed rail traffic between
Merced and Bakersfield. I think that is about 70 miles.
2 comments:
Ya Bob...this would be funny if it weren't for the fact that our retirement benefits come from that state. I Sure hope they can stay solvent for another 20 years. I've got some serious doubts.
Fortunately there is no legal mechanism for a state to go bankrupt. At this time.
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