Posted on 07/06/2019 4:31:39 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger celebrated when the California Transportation Commission voted, despite a host of warnings, to pay a contractor more than $1 billion to build two tunnels and a stretch of road outside San Francisco nine years ago.
Schwarzenegger said the project’s new approach, which aimed to cap public expenses and shift responsibility to the private sector, would serve as a “shining example” of an innovative way to improve the state’s highways while saving taxpayer dollars.
Now the project, known as the Presidio Parkway, is more than two years late and $208 million over budget. When the commission approved another $34 million in delay-related spending last month, two commissioners who originally opposed the project lamented their predictions had come true.
“This has been a fiasco from the beginning,” Commissioner Bob Alvarado said at the March 14 meeting.
Before Schwarzenegger got involved, the project had an estimated cost of $473 million to $499 million. It would replace a 1.6-mile section of U.S. Highway 101 south of the Golden Gate Bridge that had deteriorated since it was built in 1936 and no longer met earthquake standards.
The project was moving forward during the recession, when the price of materials fell and contractors were hungry for work.
Schwarzenegger wanted to try something different, calling for a public-private partnership. Unlike other state highway projects, which Caltrans would design, put out for bid and then pay a contractor to build, the partnership approach would select a contractor at a lower upfront cost to design, build and maintain the project for more than 30 years.
Proponents of Schwarzenegger’s approach, including Caltrans leaders, said it would give the project a better chance of being completed on time and on budget than the state’s traditional approach while shifting risks of delays and future problems to a contractor.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
The tunnels of San Francisco - A QM production.
The tunnels of San Francisco - A QM production.
The tunnels of San Francisco - A QM production.
Soon to be Irwin Allen when the big one hits!
I drove through that area in the summer of 2014. It appeared that one side of the new parkway was mostly complete, and all the traffic was using it. So now it’s 2019, and it’s still incomplete! Let’s hear it for crooked construction companies/deals!
Many people spoke against it...citing a cost estimate that was wildly understated.Even Barney Fag (aka: Barney Frank) said "it would be cheaper to raise the city than to lower the highway".
When finished it was learned that the final cost was,IIRC, closer to $10 billion.
Voyage to the bottom of the bay.
Gorgeous area. It was no longer needed, but still I regretted with the Presidio of San Francisco was closed during the base closures... it had been a military outpost continuously since founded by the Spanish in 1776
massof2shtz big dig comes to mexifornia
Every government contract I do has a firm “completion date”, with monetary penalties for failing to finish the work on time.
While they allow for unforeseen weather and site conditions that may adjust the time frame and materials needed with “change work” orders, it can never go above their allotted 15% over engineers estimate budget
“It was no longer needed”
Short sighted. Putting down the California rebellion will require troops in the cities.
Lol, that’s a good one
its working out exactly as planned....many people got rich...
NOPE.
Just a bunch of us California Rednecks (yes, we still exist) with Vigilante law instituted.
Plenty of rope, plenty of lampposts, plenty of trees with good branches.
Most of us would pay good money and get in line to kick the chair out from under the coastal, liberal, freaks.
“Schwarzenegger wanted to try something different, calling for a public-private partnership.”
...what could go wrong. IDIOT.
I believe Ronald Reagan vetoed the big dig money and Deaddy Kennedy came up with enough voted to over ride
Is C.c Myers still alive? He would have gotten it done.
I bet they will be the underground railroad of illegal immigrants.
The new underground hidden community of illegal immigrants.
To me he's always been "The Senior Senator from Chappaquiddick"....but "Deaddy" is really good too.
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