Would you like to buy the Brooklyn Bridge?

It just keeps getting deeper and deeper with the Silver Spring Transit Center.

          Snow job          

Would you like to buy the Brooklyn Bridge?

1. Montgomery County councilman and chairman of its transportation committee, Roger Berliner, would have us believe by his public statements that WMATA's engineers are disingenuous when they balk at accepting the severely flawed SSTC. Mr. Berliner would have us believe that our lying eyes are deceiving us--that we aren't really seeing: 

• photos of cracks and exposed reinforcement in KCE's and WMATA's reports
• construction test reports for concrete that show exactly the same test results for multiple samples
• in situ tests that show that the SSTC's less than five years old concrete is under-strength and overstressed (the yet-to-be-opened SSTC hasn't seen its first fully loaded bus)
• measurements that show deck slabs are more than an inch thinner than the 10 inches thick that they're supposed to be
• a complete lack of expansion joints (WMATA requires expansion joints spaced no more than 100 ft. apart; the 315 ft. by 580 ft. SSTC has none.)
• reports that "chunks of concrete" have fallen from the SSTC
• etc. 

Would you like to buy the Brooklyn Bridge?

2. David Dise has said publicly on numerous occasions that "the Silver Spring Transit Center absolutely will be safe". 

Dise would have us believe that he can see rebars buried inside hardened concrete, assure us that all of the rebars that are supposed to be there are there *, that they're the right grade (strength), size (diameter), and length, and that they're properly tied to rebars around them. Even if we believe that Dise has x-ray vision, like Superman, does he really expect us to believe that he can also predict the future? Not even Superman can predict the future.

* We know from KCE's and WMATA's reports that not all rebars are in place like they're supposed to be. Severely cracked pour strips, a.k.a. closure slabs, are clear evidence that slab rebars are missing. What other rebars are missing from beams, girders and columns? No one, including David Dise, knows for sure. 

Figure 3-3. Soffit of pour strip on Level 330.
from May 2, 2013 WMATA report

Would you like to buy the Brooklyn Bridge?

3. Dise and Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett would have us believe by their public statements that the Silver Spring Transit Center is a complicated structure--MUCH more complicated than a bridge or a school or a rec center. 
http://www.thesentinel.com/mont/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=1425:price-for-silver-spring-transit-center-rises-again
The SSTC is a glorified parking garage! What's so complicated about a parking garage? 

According to Leggett & Dise, the Silver Spring Transit Center is a complicated structure. Really? Good luck to Montgomery County building inspectors, and to those working and living in or near the hundreds of highrises in Montgomery County MD, if this is a complicated structure.

It must be disconcerting, to say the least, for folks in Silver Spring, Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Rockville, etc. to know that they're living and working in and around hundreds of high-rise buildings that were inspected during construction and were issued occupancy permits by Montgomery County building inspectors who don't have the expertise to handle a parking garage with just two above ground floors. 

Would you like to buy the Brooklyn Bridge?

4. Montgomery County Council Chairman George Leventhal wants to raid the general fund and other public works projects to pay for "repairs" ($21+ million) to the severely flawed, overdue, overbudget, LEMON SSTC ($141+ million, and rising). 
http://www.mymcmedia.org/council-president-leventhal-news-briefing-photos-and-video/

Mr. Leventhal, I was born at night; but, not last night!

Would you like to buy the Brooklyn Bridge?

On January 13 at the public hearing for his bill to raid the general fund and other projects of $21+ million to pay for "repairs" to the SSTC, tell Montgomery County council chairman George Leventhal that you're not buying it. Say NO to Leventhal's proposal to rob the general fund and other projects of $21+ million to pay for "repairs" to the LEMON SSTC.

Would you buy this LEMON?

Buying this LEMON is precisely what we're doing if we don't tell Montgomery County NO to spending another $21+ million of the public's $ to "repair" the LEMON SSTC.

It's way past time to stop the madness, and the bleeding, to pull the plug, and to cut the public's losses with the overdue, over-budget, severely flawed, LEMON SSTC.

Another 50 years of extraordinarily high operations and maintenance costs are not a good prospect for the public who are paying the bills for the deeply flawed LEMON Silver Spring Transit Center (a.k.a. the Paul S. Sarbanes Transit Center).

Anyone who can't see that the Silver Spring Transit Center is: 

• poorly designed
• poorly built
• poorly inspected
• poorly managed
• a burden to the public

simply isn't  paying attention.