Silver Spring Transit Center: Here we go again, taxpayers!

WMATA's Purple Line is proceeding as a public-private partnership, just like the Silver Spring Transit Center. 

Hold onto your wallets, taxpayers!

Time to get educated. Read on.

http://bankwatch.org/public-private-partnerships/

http://bankwatch.org/public-private-partnerships/background-on-ppps

Which came first? the chicken (PPPs in the UK) or the egg (PPPs in the US)?

I don't know; but, whoever it was, the egg is rotten, and the chicken is spoiled.

http://bankwatch.org/public-private-partnerships/case-studies

The Silver Spring Transit Center could be the poster child for bad PPPs.

http://bankwatch.org/public-private-partnerships/news-and-updates

Bottom line: Don't make the same mistake twice.

Silver Spring Transit Center: "I'm shocked!"

http://www.thesentinel.com/mont/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=994:report-claims-county-knew-of-transit-problems

"In April, an independent report commissioned by the county found the structure so unsafe that chunks of concrete could break off the center and fall on commuters. In 2013, two reports, one commissioned by the county and the other by WMATA, revealed the transit center would not meet state building codes and WMATA requirements."

This is taken from a presentation that Ed Blansitt, Montgomery County Inspector General, gave on September 3, 2014 to the annual conference of the Federal Audit Executive Committee (FAEC), Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria VA.

This is taken from a presentation that Ed Blansitt, Montgomery County Inspector General, gave on September 3, 2014 to the annual conference of the Federal Audit Executive Committee (FAEC), Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria VA.

"The County knew about problems in April 2010, even before construction on the elevated decks started; and, the County didn't do anything about them?!? ... I'm shocked!" 

Yes, Ma'am, it's shocking.

Ask Montgomery County why they selected Foulger Pratt, Parsons Brinkerhoff and Balter Company noncompetitively (public-private partnership), when the contractor/builder, the design engineer and the concrete inspection and testing firm, and special quality inspector, are selected competitively for most large public works projects. Ask Montgomery County if political contribution$ were part of the $$TC's $election proce$$.

What's best for the taxpaying public--competition or crony capitalism?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crony_capitalism
The severely flawed, over-budget, overdue, lemon SSTC is exactly what you get when politics trumps competition. 

The "in depth reporting" and "probing questions" news media haven't done either--reported on the Silver Spring Transit Center "in depth" or "asked probing questions". Will the taxpaying public ever get "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth", about the severely flawed, over-budget, overdue, lemon SSTC? Who knows? But, if the truth ever does come out, it's likely to be both revealing and shocking.

Silver Spring Transit Center

Silver Spring Transit Center: once a lemon, always a lemon

"March 2013. KCE Structural Engineers issues report on the SSTC stating the facility is 'severely compromised' and requires extensive remedial strenthening and repair to meet Building Code and WMATA requirements."

This is taken from a presentation that Ed Blansitt, Montgomery County Inspector General, gave on September 3, 2014 to the annual conference of the Federal Audit Executive Committee (FAEC), Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria VA.

http://www.ignet.gov/faec-september-agenda-2014.html

Now we learn that Montgomery County is seeking to spend even more money on the lemon SSTC.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/montgomery-county-seeks-more-money-for-still-unopened-silver-spring-transit-center/2014/09/16/06d622c2-3dbb-11e4-b0ea-8141703bbf6f_story.html

No amount of money or time will "fix" the Silver Spring Transit Center.

Once a lemon, always a lemon.

Silver Spring Transit Center

Can you hear that flushing sound?

SSTC: 53% federal funding, 11% state, 36% county

Silver Spring Transit Center press release

Here's Montgomery County's press release:
http://www6.montgomerycountymd.gov/Apps/Council/PressRelease/PR_detailsnew.asp?PrID=14044

Here's mine:

Members of the news media and concerned citizens:

1. Ask the council how the repairs to the SSTC, "a concrete overlay" and reinforcing/repairing "certain beams and girders", will "fix" cracking in the SSTC's columns.
2.  Ask the council how the SSTC's complete lack of expansion/contraction joints, a major flaw identified in the county's (KCE) report, is being addressed. WMATA design and construction standards, to which the SSTC was supposed to have been designed and built, require expansion/contraction joints to be spaced no farther than 100 feet apart. The 315 ft. by 580 ft. SSTC has none.      
   
3. Ask the council why the county is repairing the severely flawed, lemon SSTC when the public was promised a brand new, unflawed transit center. 
4. Ask the council why the county selected Foulger Pratt, Parsons Brinkerhoff and Balter Company noncompetitively, when the contractor/builder, the design engineer and the concrete inspection and testing firm, and special quality inspector, are selected competitively for most large public works projects.
5. Ask the council if political contribution$ were part of the $$TC's $election proce$$.
6. Ask the council if they feel that the county has been good stewards of the public's investment ($130+ million, so far, including "repairs") in the SSTC (53% federal funding, 11% state and 36% county).
7. Ask the council why the public should continue to "pay through the nose" (e.g., high future operation and maintenance costs) for the lemon SSTC that result from its serious, inherent flaws.
8. Ask the council why there haven't been public meetings where citizens can ask their questions and make their comments on the public record. (Most citizens are at work when the council has its meetings. We rely on the news media to "walk the walk" and to report "in depth" and to ask "probing questions" that they so highly tout.)
9. In light of the county's own report (KCE), and later reports that "chunks of concrete" are falling from the lemon SSTC, ask the council if they believe that the SSTC does or doesn't present a threat to public safety. Ask for a show of hands.

Let's see if answers to these questions are in tomorrow's news media (print, TV, radio, internet) reports.

Silver Spring Transit Center: what about the columns?

In their March 15, 2013 report on the Silver Spring Transit Center, KCE recommends "strengthening and repairs required to increase the combined shear and torsional capacity of certain beams and girders" and a "properly detailed concrete overlay on the top surface" of elevated slabs "to provide long-term durability". 

What about the columns?

Silver Spring Transit Center, "Structural Evaluation of Superstructure", March 15, 2013, Vol. 2, pg. 293

How will repairs to "certain beams and girders" and a concrete overlay "fix" cracking in the SSTC's columns?

Answer: they won't.

One of the significant findings of KCE's report is that the SSTC doesn't have any expansion/contraction joints. Standard design and construction practice and WMATA design and construction standards require expansion/contraction joints in structures exposed to temperature changes. WMATA design and construction standards, to which the SSTC was supposed to have been designed and constructed, require expansion/contraction joints be spaced no more than 100 feet apart. The 315 ft. by 580 ft. SSTC has none.

Not long after KCE's report was released, Bryant Foulger of Foulger Pratt, the SSTC's builder/contractor, said that "the SSTC is like a tightly wound snare drum".

When the SSTC tries to expand or contract because of changes in temperature, hot or cold respectively, it can't, because it has no expansion/contraction joints. The monolithic, post-tensioned, concrete SSTC is like a tightly wound snare drum, and it cracks. Without expansion/contraction joints, the SSTC will continue to crack even after it's "fixed" with its "repairs required to increase the combined shear and torsional capacity of certain beams and girders" and its concrete overlay.

Nice analogy, Mr. Foulger! The only problem is that you can loosen a tightly wound snare drum; but, you can't loosen a 315 ft. by 580 ft. monolithic, post-tensioned, concrete structure that doesn't have any expansion/contraction joints. Without expansion/contraction joints, the SSTC will continue to crack, even after it's "repaired".

Silver Spring Transit Center

Silver Spring Transit Center: piecing together the lemon

It seems like there's something new to learn about the lemon Silver Spring Transit Center every day:

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Inside-the-Fight-to-Save-the-Silver-Spring-Transit-Center-274536691.html

"Hundreds of metal bars, called stirrups, that were supposed to be tied off and closed for strength at the troubled Silver Spring Transit Center were instead left open, then buried in concrete.

Much of the work taking place right now at the Transit Center is trying to locate the open stirrups inside the concrete, dig them up and close them off.

...

Problem after problem seems to creep up."


Without getting technical, suffice to say that stirrups are important in resisting torsion.

The "cage" formed by the stirrups and the longitudinal bars resist twisting (torsion).

Needless to say, it's important to "close them off" (tie the stirrups to the longitudinal bars).

• Where were the inspectors on this job? 
• Where was Montgomery County? 
• Will we ever stop finding out about problems with the lemon Silver Spring Transit Center?

Silver Spring Transit Center

Deficiencies in Project Management in Construction of the Silver Spring Transit Center

This is taken from a presentation that Ed Blansitt, Montgomery County Inspector General, gave on 

September 3, 2014 to the annual conference of the Federal Audit Executive Committee (FAEC), Council 
of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria VA.

"The County will be looking to you as the SER (Structural Engineer of Record) to provide us guidance in this issue. We are all sensitive to keeping with schedule, but that should not keep us from doing what is right for the long term of the facility." 

Donald Scheuerman, Jr., Chief, Project Management Section, DGS 

October 28, 2010

Almost four years later Montgomery County is making repairs to the "severely compromised" Silver Spring Transit Center "to meet Building Code and WMATA requirements".

Mr. Scheuerman, what happened? Clearly, those responsible did not follow through on your charge to "do what is right for the long term of the Silver Spring Transit Center". Who's responsible for this failure?

Stop the madness! Do not open the Silver Spring Transit Center (now scheduled for "some time in 2015") until an independent criminal investigation has been completed and made public.

the "smoking gun"...
(although many would argue that KCE's March 15, 2013 report is the REAL smoking gun...)

this is taken from a presentation made by Ed Blansitt, Montgomery County Inspector General, to the Federal Audit Executive Committee (FAEC) annual conference, Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, on 9/3/14:

Deficiencies in Project Management in Construction of the Silver Spring Transit Center
Ed Blansitt, IG, Montgomery County, MD OIG
Mike Morgan, AIG, Montgomery County, MD OIG

2014 FAEC Annual Conference
September 3rd & 4th. 2014 
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO)
600 Dulany Street
Alexandria, VA 22314

Link:  http://www.ignet.gov/faec-september-agenda-2014.html

• Click on the “Slides” hotlink for Blansitt's presentation (10:30-11:20).
• A Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppsx) file will be downloaded.
• Double click on the .ppsx file to view the presentation slides.

"April 2010. Montgomery County Department of Permitting Services inspector raises concern that post tensioning of the slabs and girders with the built in wall would create a zone of cracking in the slabs along certain points."

"March 2013. KCE Structural Engineers issues report on the SSTC stating the facility is 'severely compromised' and requires extensive remedial strengthening and repair to meet Building Code and WMATA requirements."

"Advisory group commissioned by the County Executive projects completion around April 2015 at a cost of $131 million."

"IG (concludes):
  - weak or ineffective project controls
    - could and should have directly controlled the construction activities
    - weak concrete in structure could have been avoided
      - strength of in-situ concrete significantly lower than construction specimens even after 1+ yr.
  - weaker concrete acted to exacerbate other deficiencies
    - slab thickness (or lack thereof)
    - pour strip reinforcing and tensions (stresses)
    - (deficient) design
    - stress cracking due to tendon tensioning
  - (deficient) cold weather curing 
  - data documenting deficiencies existed--was not analyzed
  - independent peer review (should have been performed)
  - independent construction manager (should have been hired)"

On the last two points, why are an independent peer review and an independent construction manager necessary? Why can't Montgomery County staff perform these functions? Is it because of conflict of interest resulting from Montgomery County noncompetitively choosing the builder/contractor, the design engineer and the concrete tester/inspector and special quality inspector (public-private partnership), instead of them being selected competitively, as is the case with most large public works' projects? Were political contribution$ involved in the $$TC's public-private partnership $election proce$$?

Finally, why isn’t Mr. Blansitt giving his presentation at public meetings so that those who are paying for the SSTC, you and me (53% federal funding, 11% MD, 36% County), can ask our questions and provide our comments on the public record?

Can there be any doubt: 

• that the Silver Spring Transit Center is a lemon? 
• that it will be expensive to operate and to maintain because of its inherent flaws, not the least of which is its complete lack of expansion/contraction joints?
• that the SSTC poses legitimate public safety concerns?
• that the SSTC is a waste of federal, state and county funds?
• that Montgomery County, the Maryland Transit Administration and the Federal Transit Administration have failed to protect the public with the $130+ million lemon SSTC?
• that the news media have failed us by not reporting this story "in depth" and by not asking "probing questions"?
• that those who pay for public works, you and me, get ripped off by public-private partnerships?
• that nobody cares?

We tend not to think about the effects that normal temperature changes can have on manmade structures that aren't designed and built to accommodate them. But, who can forget January 28, 1986 and the space shuttle Challenger disaster?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster 


"The Rogers Commission found NASA's organizational culture and decision-making processes had been key contributing factors to the accident. NASA managers had known contractor Morton Thiokol's design of the SRBs contained a potentially catastrophic flaw in the O-rings since 1977, but failed to address it properly. They also disregarded warnings (an example of "go fever") from engineers about the dangers of launching posed by the low temperatures of that morning and failed to adequately report these technical concerns to their superiors.

What Rogers did not highlight was that the vehicle was never certified to operate in temperatures that low. The O-rings, as well as many other critical components, had no test data to support any expectation of a successful launch in such conditions. Bob Ebeling from Thiokol delivered a biting analysis: "[W]e're only qualified to 40 degrees ...'what business does anyone even have thinking about 18 degrees, we're in no man's land.'"

Silver Spring Transit Center

Silver Spring Transit Center, Montgomery Co. & the Laws of Physics

Montgomery Co. MD and its paid and unpaid consultants would have us believe that the Montgomery County council has repealed the laws of physics.

In March 2013 Montgomery County posted a report that they commissioned on the county website. The report documents severe cracking in the yet-to-be-completed, $130+ million Silver Spring Transit Center. 

In addition to documenting widespread cracking throughout the SSTC's concrete slabs, beams, girders and columns, the report identifies that the 315 ft. by 580 ft. SSTC doesn't have any expansion/contraction joints. Standard construction practice and WMATA design and construction standards, to which the SSTC was supposed to have been designed and built, require expansion/contraction joints be located in structures exposed to temperature changes. WMATA design and construction standards require that expansion/contraction joints be located no farther than 100 feet apart. 

a small "accoutrement" that the SSTC's public-private partnership failed to provide every 100 feet

The SSTC, a football field wide and almost two long, has no expansion/contraction joints, defying the laws of physics, and in particular, the law of thermal expansion. The laws of physics won't be defied; so, the SSTC cracks.

Ongoing "repairs" (a latex concrete overlay and external reinforcement for under-designed beams) ignore the SSTC's complete lack of expansion/contraction joints. As a result, the SSTC can be expected to continue to crack after ongoing "repairs" are complete.

Sorry, Montgomery Co. council. As much as you'd like to repeal the laws of physics, you can't.  
http://pileofsteamingbs.blogspot.com/2014/09/what-does-us-state-dept-montgomery-co.html

Silver Spring Transit Center

STOP the Purple Line's Public-Private Partnership

Montgomery County MD already has one public-private partnership disaster--the Silver Spring Transit Center. $130+ million of federal (53%), state (11%) and county (36%) funds have been wasted on the severely flawed, yet-to-be-opened, Silver Spring Transit Center. 

STOP! Don't make the same mistake twice! Get a court injunction. Don't allow even more federal, state and local public money to be wasted on a public-private partnership for METRO's Purple Line.

While Montgomery County presses ahead with "repairs" to the severely flawed SSTC, the public, who are paying more than retail for the lemon SSTC, haven't even been given the opportunity to ask their questions and make their comments on the public record. Neither Montgomery County, the Federal Transit Administration nor the Maryland Transit Administration have held public meetings to answer our questions and take our comments.

Before Montgomery County, MD and the federal government waste more public $ on another public-private partnership, METRO's Purple Line, we, the public, want answers to our questions!

• Why did Montgomery County select Foulger Pratt to build the SSTC instead of bidding it for construction, like most large public works' projects?
• Why did Montgomery County noncompetitively select Parsons Brinkerhoff to design the SSTC and Balter Co. to test and inspect concrete and to serve as special quality inspector for the SSTC, instead of selecting an engineer and an inspector using the normal competitive process for selecting professional service firms for large public works' projects?
• Were political contribution$ part of the $election proce$$?
• Why are Montgomery County, the Federal Transit Administration and the Maryland Transit Administration funding "repairs" for the SSTC when the public was promised a brand new, unflawed transit center?
• Why are Montgomery County, the Federal Transit Administration and the Maryland Transit Administration funding "repairs" for the SSTC when the "repairs" don't address the source of the problem, that the SSTC doesn't have expansion/contraction joints, and will continue to crack in the future, making the SSTC expensive to operate and maintain?

METRO's Purple Line

Silver Spring Transit Center

Why did the Silver Spring Transit Center crack?

Always follow instructions.

WMATA's design and construction standards, to which the SSTC was supposed to have been designed and constructed, require expansion/contraction joints be installed no more than 100 feet apart.

The 315 ft. by 580 ft. SSTC has NONE.

This is what happens when you don't follow instructions:

This is why:

http://www.structuremag.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/C-StrucDesign-Iqbal-Oct101.pdf

The "repairs" that are now being done to the SSTC (latex concrete overlay and exterior reinforcement for under-designed beams) won't fix the source of the cracking: the SSTC's total lack of expansion/contraction joints. The SSTC will continue to crack. 

The public paid more than retail ($130+ million; 53% federal funding, 11% state and 36% county) for a brand new, unflawed transit center; the public doesn't deserve this lemon. 

Controlling the Silver Spring Transit Center discussion

Public information for the Silver Spring Transit Center debacle is tightly controlled by Montgomery County MD and the news media.

In March 2013 Montgomery County MD posted “Structural Evaluation of Superstructure” on its website. The multivolume report blames the SSTC’s serious design, construction and testing and inspection flaws on “errors and omissions” by the contractor/builder, Foulger Pratt, the design engineer, Parsons Brinkerhoff, and the concrete testing/inspection firm, and special quality inspector, Balter Company. 

Since March 2013 Montgomery County’s council, executive, staff, and paid and pro bono consultants have controlled information to the public through carefully crafted press releases and public statements that the news media (print, TV, radio, internet) have dutifully disseminated. What’s absent from the discussion is input from those other than Montgomery County politicians, bureaucrats and paid and unpaid consultants, and their minions, the news media.

Twice, on July 12, 2012 and again on January 9, 2013, Action Committee for Transit (ACT), a Montgomery County citizens' group advocating better transportation, asked Montgomery County's council to hold community meetings so that the public can learn the facts about the SSTC, and ask their questions, and provide their comments, on the public record; TWICE the County Council ignored these public requests.

http://www.actfortransit.org/purple_transit_center.html

Here are just some of the questions that the public wants answers for:

• Why did Montgomery County select Foulger Pratt to build the SSTC instead of bidding it for construction, like most large public works’ projects?
• Why did Montgomery County noncompetitively select Parsons Brinkerhoff to design the SSTC and Balter Co. to inspect and test concrete and serve as special quality inspector, rather than use the normal competitive process for selecting professional service firms for large public works' projects?
• Why is Montgomery County spending tens of million$ “repairing” the SSTC when the public has paid more than retail for a brand new, unflawed transit center?
• Why is Montgomery County spending tens of million$ “repairing” the SSTC when the “repairs” don’t address the source of the problem, that is, that the 315 ft. by 580 ft. SSTC has no expansion/contraction joints, despite the fact that standard construction practice, and WMATA design and construction standards, require structures that are exposed to temperature changes to have expansion/contraction joints. WMATA design and construction standards, to which the SSTC was supposed to have been designed and constructed, require expansion/contraction joints to be spaced no farther apart than every 100 feet. 

http://silverspringtransitcenter.blogspot.com/2014/02/wmatas-engineers-are-right.html

• Why has David Dise, Montgomery County’s director of the Department of General Services, said repeatedly in public that “the SSTC will absolutely be safe” when neither Mr. Dise, nor anyone else for that matter, can predict the future?
• Why hasn't the public, who are paying (53% federal funding, 11% state and 36% county) for the seriously flawed, yet-to-be-opened, $130+ million SSTC, been given the opportunity to ask their questions and to provide their comments on the public record?

Perhaps most galling of all is that news media that tout that they report “in depth” and “ask probing questions” have done neither with this major local story. News media have disseminated press releases and public statements from Montgomery County’s politicians and bureaucrats and their paid and unpaid consultants largely without question.