Audit Finds Poor Planning Cost NY Millions in Overruns at Highway Rest Areas

The Jewish Voice ^ | July 10, 2019 | The Jewish Voice

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Inadequate planning cost taxpayers over $12 million in overruns at I LOVE NY highway rest areas, as per an audit from the office of Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. The recently released audit revealed that the state Department of Transportation did a poor job of planning and following up in its construction of rest areas with a tourism focus in each of NYS’s 10 regions. The state’s plan, as touted by Governor Andrew Cuomo, was to build at least 10 Welcome Centers, carrying New York-made products, as a way to advertise the state’s tourism attractions in each of its regions.

As reported by Democrat & Chronicle, USA TODAY Network’s Albany section, the audit showed that the Welcome Centers fell upon substantial cost overruns. In one example, the audit asserts that when building the Welcome Center on the Long Island Expressway, the DOT didn’t initially account for a sewer system. The oversight caused the building’s cost to jump unexpectedly from $20 million to $27 million.

Moreover, the audit found that in the town of Schodack, east of Albany, the DOT spent $1.4 million knocking down an existing rest area on Interstate 90, only to later decide that the site wasn’t big enough, moving the plans to Interstate 87. In another fail, in the Hudson Valley, DOT spent $1.5 million on plans for a rest area on the Taconic State Parkway only to forsake the plans altogether amid environmental concerns. In Kirkwood, Broome County, final plans for a Welcome Center were 30 percent complete when the DOT put the project out for a bid. When the Welcome Center eventually opened in October 2017, the actual cost had risen to $8.3 million, up from an estimate of $6.4 million.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

PING.

[BobL]

Easy solution for NY - just raise tolls, that way the people who use the roads pay for them.

(my imitation of the toll road junkies here)

[CincyRichieRich]

I would not be surprised if they have electric charging stations for the idiot liberal cars.

[lurk]

A union job badly planned and behind schedule? Whaaaaat?

[mass55th]

"I would not be surprised if they have electric charging stations for the idiot liberal cars."

Not yet they don't, but some Democrats, and their buddies made a lot of money with this I love NY scam. I live in central NY State, and use the thruway regularly. I don't even go into their shops at the rest stops, or buy food...just use their toilets when traveling.

[Gay State Conservative]

We have the answer to that here in the Gay State. Some time ago it was established that Massachusetts highway rest stops were havens for junkies and pervert hookups.

So we closed them!

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I don’t have a problem with tolling nowadays. The highways are parking lots thanks to commuters traveling from WAY OVER THERE to get to jobs RIGHT HERE, and vice versa. However, the tolls should be restricted to stretched that just underwent a major revision, such as widening or rehabilitation, so that the tolls can pay part of the cost, and then maintenance in perpetuity. And, as another FReeper said on another thread, the agencies should be audited first, and, might I add, public canings distributed when appropriate.

So, if traffic-clogged pseudo-parking-lot I-270 in Maryland remains free for the next 50 years because of the way I want to do it, so be it.

[bigbob]

Privatize them like Indiana has done

[BobL]

I don’t like toll roads, obviously, but what really sets me off are the ‘public-private partnerships’, for many reasons, most of which you know. What also angers me is the diversion of toll money to ‘other priorities’ - that needs to be OUTLAWED before allowing tolls, otherwise ‘civic leaders’ will find those other uses.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

What also angers me is the diversion of toll money to ‘other priorities’ - that needs to be OUTLAWED before allowing tolls, otherwise ‘civic leaders’ will find those other uses.

☑

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

In one example, the audit asserts that when building the Welcome Center on the Long Island Expressway, the DOT didn’t initially account for a sewer system.

Nonsense.

Someone just used up (or stole) the money and then claimed they needed more to put in the vital component.

Sort of like how the Air Force always builds their runways last. Getting more money for nicer housing can be difficult if you have the runway built but if you have the housing build you can easily get more money for the runway.

[kearnyirish2]

Yes, “poor planning” is a BS excuse - it is poor controls, with a bottomless wallet. NY, like my state of NJ, is still spending money as though it is 1970. Those states, and that economic climate, are gone.

Who wouldn’t want to move or open a business here to pay for this nonsense?