Accountability & the Silver Spring Transit Center

Accountability?

What we know:

1. In 1993 Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan declared publicly that the $20 million Silver Spring Transit Center will be complete in 1998. 

   

   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.
2. The SSTC is seriously flawed. A structural evaluation report (commissioned by Montgomery County, performed by KCE Structural Engineers, and made public in March 2013) documents serious design, construction and inspection/testing flaws in the over budget, overdue, $120+ million SSTC. 
   
3. The March 2013 report blames the SSTC's numerous flaws on "errors and omissions" committed by the SSTC's design engineer, Parsons Brinkerhoff, the builder/contractor, Foulger Pratt, and the concrete testing/inspection firm and special quality inspector, Balter Co.
4. Montgomery County noncompetitively selected (public-private partnership) Parsons Brinkerhoff, Foulger Pratt and Balter Co. for the project.
5. Montgomery County served as construction manager for the project, including a fulltime team of County employees on site during construction.
6. The SSTC is presently being "repaired". These repairs include adding reinforcement where there was none, adding a 2-inch modified concrete overlay to elevated decks, and reinforcing 250+ beams.
7. The opening date, final cost and extraordinary costs for operation and maintenance of the SSTC, because of its flaws, are unknown.
8. So far, the public has borne all of the ballooning costs for the SSTC, including "repair" costs, consultant fees, etc.
9. Funding for the SSTC is 53% federal, 11% state (MD) and 36% local (Montgomery County).

For all we know, the public will end up eating all of the extra costs for the SSTC. No person or persons from Montgomery County, Maryland Transit Administration, Federal Transit Administration, Foulger Pratt, Parsons Brinkerhoff or Balter Co. have taken responsibility for the increased costs, including "repair" costs.

It appears that the current County executive will be reelected on Tuesday, Nov. 4. Why not? By their votes and by their silence Montgomery County, Maryland and US citizens have shown that they're OK with unaccountability for those responsible for poor public works' management, design, construction, concrete inspection and testing, quality control, and the outrageous delays and cost overruns that they produce.

Political commercials on TV feature teachers complaining that more money needs to go towards education. Perhaps they're right. I wonder if they and voters have considered that the tens of millions of dollars wasted on the lemon SSTC could have been better spent on education. Have they also considered that lack of accountability produces such waste?

Face it. There is no accountability in government.
Who's to blame? taxpayers/voters/people who don't vote. We are.
Face it, folks. If we keep voting in folks who waste the public's $, then what are they to think? Answer: It's OK to waste the public's $.
So, you get more of what you ask for.
Bring on the Purple Line public-private partnership! Waste more of the public's $! Apparently, we like it.

Silver Spring Transit Center

Is the Silver Spring Transit Center safe?

Since March 2013 when the KCE structural report for the Silver Spring Transit Center was made public, we've heard lots of opinions on the SSTC's safety. Most of them have come from those associated with the project--Montgomery County council and executive, county staff, the county's paid and unpaid consultants, etc. 

Most of the opinions have been from those with little or no qualifications in construction or structural engineering. News media (print, TV, radio, internet) have reported these opinions carte blanche without qualifying them as opinions (as opposed to facts) and without questioning the qualifications of those who make them. 

Most, if not all, of the reported opinions are that the SSTC is or will be safe. Few, if any, qualified experts in construction and engineering have said that the SSTC isn't safe. Here's one.

I don't believe that the SSTC is or will be safe for several reasons:

1. The KCE structural report
2. The SSTC's complete lack of expansion joints
3. Reports that "chunks of concrete" have fallen from the SSTC
4. the unknown

"Errors and omissions" cited in the March 15, 2013 KCE structural report are both serious and widespread:

• widespread cracking in slabs, beams, girders and columns 
  
• slabs more than an inch thinner than what they're supposed to be
• exposed reinforcement
• missing reinforcement
• understrength and overstressed concrete
• underdesigned beams
• no expansion joints
• etc.

One of the significant findings of the KCE report is that the SSTC has no expansion/contraction joints. 

Standard construction practice and WMATA design and construction standards require expansion/contraction joints in structures exposed to temperature changes. WMATA's design and construction standards, to which the SSTC was supposed to have been designed and constructed, require expansion/contraction joints to be placed no more than 100 feet apart. The 315 ft. by 580 ft. SSTC has none. 

A year or so ago a representative from Foulger Pratt was quoted as saying that the SSTC is like a "tightly wound snare drum". The analogy is a good one. The difference is that a tightly wound snare drum can be loosened, whereas a monolithic concrete structure with no expansion/contraction joints cannot. The SSTC will continue to crack even after "repairs" are complete. 

Several months ago it was reported that "chunks of concrete" have fallen from the SSTC. Needless to say, chunks of falling concrete are unsafe for those who may use the SSTC.

Is even a repaired SSTC worth the risk? I don't think so. The SSTC's known flaws are so serious and so numerous that, together with other flaws that may be hidden inside the SSTC's flawed concrete shell, I don't think that it's worth the risk to the public who may use it. 

One thing is for sure: that given the SSTC's numerous, severe flaws, the SSTC will be expensive to operate and to maintain. If the SSTC were to survive it's supposed 50 year service life, then it would be "throwing good money after bad".

Silver Spring Transit Center

Seers and the Silver Spring Transit Center

Since March 2013 when the structural report for the Silver Spring Transit Center became public, we've heard from many seers--politicians, bureaucrats, paid and unpaid consultants and even engineers--who proclaim that "the SSTC will absolutely be safe". The latest to do so is Montgomery County councilman George Leventhal.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/montgomery-at-large-council-hopefuls-try-to-get-their-messages-out-at-crowded-forum/2014/10/14/10aa3364-53ab-11e4-892e-602188e70e9c_story.html

"Leventhal, of Tacoma Park, acknowledged grevious lapses of exexutive oversight and poor decision-making, but said the facility will be safe when it opens."

Every time that I hear someone say "the SSTC will be safe when it opens", I wait for a reporter, or anyone for that matter, to ask "what makes you so sure?"

The fact is that no one can predict the future. No one can see what other serious structural flaws may be present inside the SSTC's severely flawed concrete shell.

Even fortunetellers don't know if the Silver Spring Transit Center will be safe.

Who's paying for the Silver Spring Transit Center debacle?

We all are. 

Source: http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/DGS-BDC/SS/509974.html

We're all paying more than retail for the Silver Spring Transit Center, including repairs to the severely flawed, yet-to-be-opened, glorified parking garage. 

US taxpayers contribute 53%.
Maryland taxpayers pay twice--Federal (53%) + MD (11%).
Montgomery County taxpayers pay three times--Federal (53%) + MD (11%) + Montgomery County (36%).
METRO patrons pay too.
Such a deal!

According to the March 2013 report commissioned by Montgomery County, the SSTC's numerous flaws are the result of errors and omissions by the SSTC's builder/contractor (Foulger Pratt), design engineer (Parsons Brinkerhoff) and concrete testing and inspection firm and special quality inspector (Balter Co.).

We all deserve to know all of the facts concerning the severely flawed, over-budget, overdue, lemon SSTC. These include: 

• how and why Montgomery County non-competitively selected the SSTC's builder/contractor, design engineer and concrete testing and inspection firm. 
• whether political contribution$ were part of the $election proce$$. 
• why Montgomery County, the Federal Transit Administration and the Maryland Transit Administration failed to hold public meetings to explain to the public why they're making repairs to the lemon SSTC when the public was promised a brand new transit center. 
• why Montgomery County, the FTA and the MTA failed to provide an opportunity for those who are paying for the Silver Spring Transit Center to ask our questions and to provide our comments on the public record, before they began making repairs to the seriously flawed SSTC.

Silver Spring Transit Center

Silver Spring Transit Center: differences between government and private business

Suppose that you’re the CEO of a large manufacturing company. You are ultimately responsible for your company’s operations. You have factories and plants all over the country. 

Within your company is a construction group whose responsibility it is to oversee design and construction of the factories that your company owns, which produce your product. The responsibilities of your Construction Division include hiring architects and engineers to design your factories, contractors to build them, and inspectors to watch over the construction on your behalf.

During the design phase of one of your factories, prior to construction, a member of your construction group reviews the plans and discovers a design flaw which could have serious implications regarding the structural integrity of the building. For example, the Construction Division employee "... raises concerns that post tensioning of the slabs and girders with the built in wall would create a zone of cracking along certain points".

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 chief of your Construction Division, upon hearing your employee’s concerns, does nothing. 

Construction proceeds. The slabs and the girders crack, along with the beams and the columns. 

taken from the March 2013 SSTC structural report commissioned by Montgomery Co. and a similar report commissioned by WMATA

Years pass. 

The factory is almost complete; however, cracking in the slabs, beams, girders and columns is much too extensive to ignore. Also, your Production Division, which will utilize the new factory to make your product, is balking over occupying the flawed factory, concerned that the building’s flaws will add cost to producing your product, and could even affect worker safety.

As CEO, are you happy with this situation? How would you deal with it? Would you fire the chief of your Construction Division? Would you blame the engineer, contractor and inspector that your company selected and hired, but not your company, especially considering that your company owns the factory and that your employee identified the problem four years earlier, and your company did nothing about it? Would you tell your stockholders that your company's employees, including you, were just "along for the ride", instead of being "in the driver's seat" as owner of the factory in question?

The answers are obvious, unless you’re Montgomery County. 

Montgomery County's Executive makes excuses for the County's gross negligence in not stopping design/construction and resolving the problem when it was identified four years’ earlier. Also, as opposed to the CEO of the manufacturing company, Montgomery County’s Executive has no problem passing on costs for the problem (including repairs, or demolishing the flawed building and starting over) to the purchasers of the company’s product.

Do you see the difference between how government operates and how private business operates?

Silver Spring Transit Center

More than a year and a half after Montgomery County posted KCE's report documenting the SSTC's serious flaws on the County's website, the following questions remain unanswered:

• Why did Montgomery County non-competitively select Foulger Pratt to build the SSTC, Parsons Brinkerhoff to design it and Balter Company to inspect and test concrete and to serve as special quality inspector?
• Were political contribution$ part of the $election proce$$?
• Why is Montgomery County repairing the lemon SSTC when the public was promised, and paid more than retail for, a brand new, unflawed transit center?
• Why didn't Montgomery County, the Federal Transit Administration and the Maryland Transit Administration hold public meetings, before beginning repairs to the seriously flawed, lemon SSTC, to explain to the public what they are doing and why, and to answer the public's questions, and take their comments, on the public record?

This is my "best shot". 124 posts over 10 months. I've done my best to add truth to incomplete and inaccurate media reports (print, TV, radio, internet). 

The truth can be found:

• in KCE's March 2013 data-filled and thorough report of the SSTC's serious design and construction flaws that is available for viewing and downloading on Montgomery County's website. Have you read it?
• in testimony from WMATA's engineers before the Montgomery County council
• in WMATA's consultant's report that is also available on Montgomery County's website
• in facts contained in the Montgomery County Inspector General incomplete report and statements (incomplete in the sense that the IG fails to address why and how Montgomery County noncompetitively selected (via public-private partnership) Foulger Pratt, Parsons Brinkerhoff and Balter Co. to build, design and inspect/test concrete for the SSTC respectively. Were political "contribution$" part of the $election Proce$$?)
• from my own education (civil engineering degree) and experience (40+ years, including PE licenses in MD, DC, VA and several other states)

In addition to incomplete and inaccurate media reports, adding to the misinformation:

• propaganda in the form of incomplete, inaccurate and unchallenged press releases and public statements by politicians and other technically-unqualified persons
• unchallenged, baseless, self-serving statements from Montgomery County elected officials and staff

Will the truth ever come out? I don't know. 

The biggest obstacle that I see to the truth coming out is public apathy. Hard to figure, because that's your $ being flushed:

53% federal funding, 11% MD, 36% Montgomery County

Finally, to those who wish to contact me, to ask a question or to make a technically sound comment, you can do so through the comment feature of this blog. If you're selling something, or if you want to criticize without having the technical qualifications in engineering and construction to back up your criticism, then don't bother.

Silver Spring (Bizarro World) Transit Center

**** UPDATE ****
10/02/14

http://www.gazette.net/article/20141001/OPINION/141009785/1266/leggett-has-earned-another-term%26template=gazette&template=gazette

"For the primary, The Gazette chose not to endorse Leggett. We believed, and still do, that he must be held accountable for debacle of the Silver Spring Transit Center. It was supposed to open in 2010 at a cost of $95 million. Still not open, the price tag has reached $120 million. The project stains Leggett’s record."

Hold him accountable by electing him to another term. Only in Bizarro World, by the Bizarro World Gazette. There's a lack of good choices for Executive on the Montgomery County ballot. Write in "Bizarro".

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

*******************************************************************************************************


Who remembers DC Comic's "Bizarro World"? 
I do.

"In popular culture 'Bizarro World' has come to mean a situation or setting which is weirdly inverted or opposite of expectations."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bizarro_World

Who can deny that Silver Spring MD is actually Bizarro World?

• where citizens pay more than retail for a brand new transit center, and accept a seriously flawed, lemon instead? (53% federal funding, 11% MD, 36% Montgomery County)
• where citizens pay for repairs to the seriously flawed, lemon, Silver Spring Transit Center?
• where repairs to the lemon SSTC won't correct the problem--the SSTC's total lack of expansion joints? (standard construction practice and WMATA design and construction standards, to which the lemon SSTC was supposed to have been designed and constructed, require expansion joints in structures exposed to temperature changes. WMATA requires them to be spaced no more than 100 ft. apart. The 315 ft. by 580 ft. lemon SSTC has none.)
• where Montgomery County selects the lemon SSTC's builder/contractor, design engineer and concrete inspector/tester non-competitively, and nobody cares? (Were political "contribution$" part of the $election proce$$?)
• where Montgomery County politicians and staff and the County's paid and unpaid consultants insist that "the SSTC will absolutely be safe", despite the fact that the SSTC is cracked throughout, has slabs more than an inch thinner than what they're supposed to be, has more than 250 underdesigned beams, chucks of concrete have fallen off, etc., and people actually believe them?
• where news media (print, TV, radio, internet) fail to challenge Montgomery County's press releases and other unqualified public statements before they report them?
• where news media tout that they cover the news "in depth" and that they ask "probing questions", but fail to do either?

Yep. Silver Spring MD is Bizarro World.

And, the Silver Spring Transit Center is a lemon.

Silver Spring Transit Center