Silver Spring Transit Center: missing the obvious

Why do Montgomery County and its experts continue to miss the obvious?

More than a year ago Montgomery County released a report that it commissioned to address widespread cracking in slabs, beams, girders and columns at the yet-to-be-opened, severely flawed Silver Spring Transit Center. The report identifies the SSTC's total lack of expansion/contraction joints as a major defect. The report says that despite WMATA's requirement that expansion joints be located no more than 100 feet apart, the 315 ft. by 580 ft. SSTC has NONE. 

An article in Structure Magazine explains why expansion joints are necessary in parking garages:
http://www.structuremag.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/C-StrucDesign-Iqbal-Oct101.pdf
"The purpose of an expansion joint is to reduce build-up of volume change (VC) stresses and the associated structural distress. An expansion joint is considered a necessary evil because omitting an expansion joint where it is needed creates a risk of structural distress."
Hence, the widespread concrete cracking.

Yet, for whatever reason(s), Montgomery County and its experts continue to fail to address the obvious. Ongoing repairs (2-inch thick latex concrete overlay and external steel braces on cracked beams where, according to Engineering News Record, 3-inch thick pieces of concrete have fallen) don't address the obvious problem (the SSTC's total lack of expansion/contraction joints).

Unfortunately, Montgomery County didn't hold public meetings to explain to the paying public what it is doing and why. We're ALL paying for the $120+ million, severely flawed, lemon SSTC; funding is 53% federal, 11% state and 36% county.  Unfortunate as well is the news media's (print, TV, radio, internet) lack of "in-depth" coverage and "probing questions", that they so highly tout. 

Because of the news media's poor coverage and because neither Montgomery County, the Federal Transit Administration, nor the Maryland Transit Administration held public meetings where the public could ask their questions and make their comments on the public record, we don't know why Montgomery County and its experts continue to miss the obvious.

In an interview ( http://www.mymcmedia.org/valerie-ervin-on-silver-spring-transit-center-video/ )
former Montgomery County councilwoman Valerie Ervin said "... there's a lot of the story still underneath the surface (translation: we haven't been told the whole truth) ... it's going to cost taxpayers a lot of money until it's resolved (contrary to what we've been told) ... people have many reasons not to believe what they've been told (translation: we've been lied to)".  

Politics is one thing; public safety, government waste and government deception are another.