Silver Spring Transit Center Debacle

Debacle: "a great disaster or complete failure"
Debacle - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Summary: (May 2014)
Silver Spring Transit Center to cost taxpayers even more money | WJLA.com  

• David Dise: "All projects encounter struggles. Certainly this one is unique in that regard." 
• Councilman Phil Andrews: "This project has been a monumental debacle. ... There's simply no comparison between the Silver Spring Transit Center and any other construction project in the County's history." 
• Unique indeed, Mr. Dise! 

Update: 
Another $21M approved for Silver Spring Transit Center

• $141+ million
• May 2015

Background:
www.montgomerycountymd.gov/DGS-BDC/Resources/Files/SS/509974/SSTC-Report-March-15-2013.pdf

• severely cracked, under-strength and over-stressed concrete
• deck slabs more than an inch less thick than they're supposed to be
• complete lack of expansion joints
• exposed reinforcement
• missing reinforcement
• design errors and omissions
• etc.

Project & construction management failures:
Report: Problems with Silver Spring Transit Center may have been known years ago | WJLA.com

Transparency failures:

Valerie Ervin on Silver Spring Transit Center (Video) | Montgomery Community Media
          
Questions:

• Does it sound to you like David Dise & Montgomery County's council (with the possible exception of Phil Andrews) are "out-of-touch"?
• Is the SSTC public-private partnership a preview of the Purple Line public-private partnership?

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

George Orwell

Here are the facts (reality):

1. The Silver Spring Transit Center is Montgomery County's project.
2. The SSTC is severely flawed.
3. The SSTC is way overdue.
4. The SSTC is way over budget.
5. The SSTC project is, as Councilman Phil Andrews put it, "a monumental debacle".
6. The Silver Spring Transit Center is a LEMON--KCE's March 15, 2013 report leaves no doubt about that. 
7. Local (Montgomery County), state (MD) and federal (US) taxpayers are paying for the LEMON Silver Spring Transit Center, including "repairs". The SSTC hasn't even opened yet--it hasn't seen its first fully loaded bus! Who in their right mind pays for "REPAIRS" to a LEMON that they were unfortunate enough to purchase in the first place? Apparently, WE do.
8. The Silver Spring Transit Center has been poorly managed--Montgomery County's April 15, 2014 Inspector General report leaves no doubt about that.   www.montgomerycountymd.gov/OIG/Resources/Files/PDF/IGActivity/FY2014/mcdgs_sstc_final_report_main_15_apr_2014.pdf 
9. No one knows if the SSTC is safe. No one can see inside hardened concrete. No one can predict the future.
10. There are plenty of legitimate reasons to question the SSTC's safety: widespread cracking, under-strength and over-stressed concrete, thin slabs, exposed reinforcement, missing reinforcement, falling chunks of concrete, design errors, faulty concrete inspection/testing, etc.
11. Former Montgomery County council member Valerie Ervin said that Montgomery County's staff, executive and council have been less-than-candid about problems with the Silver Spring Transit Center.
12. Montgomery County and KCE blame engineer Parsons Brinkerhoff, contractor Foulger Pratt and concrete inspector/tester Balter Co. for "errors and omissions" that resulted in the severely flawed, LEMON Silver Spring Transit Center. Neither blames Montgomery County--go figure!
13. The Silver Spring Transit Center is a public-private partnership.
14. We do not know why Montgomery County non-competitively selected Parsons Brinkerhoff to design the SSTC, Foulger Pratt to build it and Balter Co. to inspect and test concrete and to serve as special quality inspector. Private engineers, contractors and concrete inspection & testing firms for most public works projects are selected competitively.
15. The Purple Line is proceeding as a public-private partnership.

The severely flawed, overbudget, overdue,
LEMON, Silver Spring Transit Center

Take a ride down Colesville Rd. in April 2012, courtesy of Google Maps:
Silver Spring Metro Station - Google Maps
Click on the photo to "move on down the road".
It doesn't look much different 3 years later, does it?