First, there's the structure itself. Plagued with problems before it opened, will it continue to be plagued with problems in the future? Will "chunks of concrete" that fell off the structure before it opened continue to fall off? It may take a few winters to do so, but I don't think that it'll be too long before the first "chunk of concrete" comes crashing down. We'll see.
The other thing to watch is the lawsuits. It's incomprehensible to me how the major players in this project, Montgomery County (owner, construction manager, and responsible for reviewing and approving all construction in the county), WMATA (future owner and operator and responsible for assuring that the design and construction meets WMATA standards), Parsons Brinckerhoff (engineer), Foulger Pratt (general contractor), and Balter Company (materials testing and construction inspector and special quality control inspector), could have screwed up this project so badly.
Hopefully, we'll find out more as the lawsuits progress; but, IMHO they're all responsible. With that many people on the job, the serious design, construction and inspection flaws should never have happened. This is particularly true of the transit center's complete lack of expansion joints. WMATA's design and construction standards call for expansion joints to be spaced no more than 100 feet apart. How did WMATA miss that? How did Parsons Brinckerhoff miss it? How did Montgomery County miss it? Foulger Pratt? Balter Co.? There's no excuse; none of them were doing their job.
Hopefully, we'll find out more as the lawsuits progress; but, IMHO they're all responsible. With that many people on the job, the serious design, construction and inspection flaws should never have happened. This is particularly true of the transit center's complete lack of expansion joints. WMATA's design and construction standards call for expansion joints to be spaced no more than 100 feet apart. How did WMATA miss that? How did Parsons Brinckerhoff miss it? How did Montgomery County miss it? Foulger Pratt? Balter Co.? There's no excuse; none of them were doing their job.
Not to be forgotten are the "money guys"--the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA). Certainly the "money guys" have some responsibility in making sure that the investment that the public is making is worthwhile. Or, did they just blindly dole out the taxpayers' money with no regard to what the taxpayers were buying?
Stay tuned. Answers may be coming.
Silver Spring Transit Center
Paul S. Sarbanes Transit Center
Montgomery County MD
WMATA
Federal Transit Administration (FTA)
Maryland Transit Administration (MTA)
public-private partnership
crony capitalism
Purple Line
Gov. Hogan
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