Can the SSTC be "fixed"? Will the latex modified concrete overlay “fix” the widespread cracking and thin slabs? There are no expansion joints in the 580 ft. x 315 ft. SSTC; WMATA requires expansion joints spaced no more than 100 feet apart. Will it continue to crack? Will Montgomery County want to spend more “fixing” it if it does?
Besides cracking and thin slabs, we continue to learn about more problems with the SSTC. It leaks. 250 beams need to be strengthened because, as designed, they are incapable of taking design loads. Some concrete in the SSTC is overstressed and understrength because water was added onsite, it wasn’t cured properly in cold weather and more post-tensioning than called for was applied early on. Reinforcement is exposed is some places, and missing entirely in others.
Even if the SSTC can be “fixed”, at what cost? So far the SSTC has cost $120 million, and that’s not including repair work, future maintenance costs (which likely will be very high considering all of the SSTC’s flaws), court costs, Montgomery County’s continuing administrative costs, etc.
The SSTC is a "money pit". When will it end?
This well-informed comment to a Washington Post article on the subject (http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/silver-spring-transit-center-will-require-additional-repairs-county-says/2013/11/19/5fe73b1a-514b-11e3-9fe0-fd2ca728e67c_allComments.html) merits re-posting here:
ReplyDelete"Pashaspopwrote:
11/21/2013 11:10 AM EST
How much worse can this possibly get. Now we are told that 250 beams and girders need strengthening. TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY underdesigned beams and girders!
Well with last week's fix, if you are going to add 2 inches of Latex Modified Concrete to the deck to cover, but not fix, the deck cracks, you have just added 25 psf to the structure dead load and decreased the available live load capacity (for the buses) by a similar amount, without strengthening anything. Better had strengthen the entire structural framing given the likely defects found everywhere else.
And the MoCo excuse that we really didn't know about this because we were focused on the deck fix. Pathetic. Read the KCE report, it's all there. KCE Principal Allyn Killsheimer is hardly known as a 'shrinking violet'. He would have explained the problem fully in no uncertain terms. Couldn't get the Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) design calculations until late October, six months after asking for them. What! It takes one day to photocopy them, one day to put in 3-ring binders, and one day to ship with a nice cover letter. MoCo have PB under contract and can order them up at once. Why were they not submitted with the design documents for the record/permitting anyway?
As a Federal/MD/MoCo taxpayer I am appalled at the attitudes and behaviors alround. And we taxpayers are still not off the hook, despite the MoCo Council comments to the contrary. Who is paying/going to pay for the specialist legal advice needed now. Both contractor Foulger Pratt and designer PB intend to fight claims with MD/MoCo. Will any settlement cover our full costs and will it be conducted in public view. Unlikely, so we will continue paying and likely stuck with a future bill.
High time for the Feds to step in. In fact where are they since half the money is theirs.
Congress goes on about stopping 'waste, fraud and abuse', well here is a great example 200 yards from DC. Congressman Van Hollen?"