"Metro said that it has 10 days to formally accept the facility, but it doesn't expect any outstanding issues."
What an incredible statement! KCE's March 15, 2013 structural evaluation report, commissioned by Montgomery County and on the county's website, documents that the SSTC's decks, beams, girders and columns are severely cracked. It also says that the 315 ft. by 580 ft. SSTC doesn't have any expansion joints, which WMATA design and construction standards require be placed no farther apart than every 100 feet. Metro did their own report, which is also on Montgomery County's website, that says the same thing.
Of course it's cracked! And, it will continue to crack as long as it continues to be hot in the summer and cold in the winter. The "repairs" don't address the SSTC's total lack of expansion joints (how does one retrofit expansion joints into a hardened concrete monolith that wasn't designed or built with them in the first place?)
"Metro doesn't expect any outstanding issues." Are you kidding? Small wonder that Metro's safety record is as poor as it is!
It just keeps on coming with METRO! Now we learn that WMATA spent $250K on a PR firm to spin its way out of the January smoke death. Part of the PR strategy was to "establish(ing) interim WMATA General Manager Jack Requa as “a leader in control.” Just this month Metro’s Board of Directors gave Interim General Manager Jack Requa the authority to accept the Silver Spring Transit Center from Montgomery County. Pitiful--the blind leading the blind!
Two and a half years of reporting this story and the news media haven't asked Montgomery County or Metro why they haven't addressed the source of the cracks--the SSTC's complete lack of expansion joints--which is identified in the county's and Metro's own reports! Montgomery County's and Metro's handling, and the news media's reporting of this "monumental debacle", have been pitiful.
Why would anyone believe
anything that this guy says?
Montgomery County's David Dise's self-serving statements (often repeated by Isiah Leggett, George Leventhal, Roger Berliner, et al) are outrageous:
- "The SSTC will absolutely be safe." Is Dise a seer? Nobody knows what other defects may be hidden inside the SSTC's hardened concrete. Such a statement from a public official is both outrageous and irresponsible.
- Dise says that Montgomery County bears no responsibility for the severely flawed SSTC. Really? (1) Montgomery County non-competitively chose to contract with private companies Parsons Brinckerhoff, Foulger Pratt and Balter Co., even though private companies are selected in open competition for most public works contracts. (2) Montgomery County is owner of record for the SSTC. (3) Montgomery County has responsibility to review and issue permits for all construction in Montgomery County. (4) Montgomery County is construction manager for the SSTC with a team of full-time County employees on site during construction. Dise's public statements that Montgomery County has no responsibility for the "monumental debacle" SSTC are both absurd and irresponsible.
- “We are mostly pleased with knowing that the problems that have been identified have been completely repaired; that it is a safe and durable facility that will be enjoyed for years to come and be a significant component of the regional public transportation network,” said David Dise, the county’s director of general services. “We are now delivering what we had intended to deliver all along, which is a safe and reliable facility.” (1) "...the problems that have been identified have been completely repaired." Nonsense! The source of the SSTC's cracking--its complete lack of expansion joints--has been identified--by both Montgomery County's and WMATA's reports (on Montgomery County's website)--but, the SSTC's complete lack of expansion joints has not been addressed by "repairs". The SSTC will continue to crack without expansion joints. (2) "...safe and reliable facility." That's Dise's opinion. It is irresponsible for a public official to make such statements without qualifying them as his opinions, and not facts.
- "Dise said the county is confident that it has thoroughly addressed the problems." "The county" is confident? It's bad enough for a public official to express his opinion in public without qualifying it as his opinion; it's even worse for a public official to state that his opinion is shared by all.
- “We will hold those whom we believe to be accountable for this problem liable for the cost of making the repairs,” Dise said. Dise the Seer can not only look into the future; but also, Dise the judge, jury and executioner says: "We will hold those whom we believe to be accountable for this problem liable for the cost of making the repairs." Leggett, the law professor, knows that it's the court that decides who will be held liable for the cost of making repairs, not Dise or county government; but, Leggett, Leventhal, Berliner, et al publicly repeat Dise's outrageous lies.
The question is: Why do Leggett, Leventhal, Berliner, et al publicly repeat Dise's outrageous public statements? Don't they know better? Or do they know better, and repeat them anyway?
Silver Spring Transit Center
Paul S. Sarbanes Transit Center
Montgomery County MD
WMATA
public private partnership
crony capitalism
Maryland Transit Administration (MTA)
Federal Transit Administration (FTA)
Purple Line
Gov. Hogan
No comments:
Post a Comment