Posted on 11/28/2019 8:29:31 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The Twin Ports Interchange reconstruction project through Lincoln Park soared $100 million over budget this month, forcing planners to defer indefinitely portions of the work scheduled for 2020-23.
The $343 million project is scheduled to begin in May. Minnesota Department of Transportation figures released Monday at a regular public meeting about the project showed a $443 million price tag.
"This is what happens with every big project," Duane Hill, district engineer based in Duluth, said Monday. "You have to manage it as you go along. We thought we did a good job initially coming up with a budget for this project and what we’ve learned is that it's really hard."
Project funding is firm at $343 million, and there is currently no way to expect additional funding, sources said.
From here on out, the project will set aside work planned farther up both U.S. Highway 53 and Interstate 535 to focus solely on the Interstate 35 corridor, Pat Huston told more than 100 people gathered at Clyde Iron Works to hear about the project.
Huston, the major projects and assistant district engineer locally for MnDOT, called the project "way more complex" than anticipated, and said engineers are still learning about things such as underground lines and utilities that need to be moved, adverse soil conditions throughout the project footprint and scores of other concerns. For instance, Michigan Street through Lincoln Park will now need to be rebuilt for all of the wear and tear and outright damage it will endure throughout construction, Huston said.
"We didn't know what we didn't know," Huston said of the original engineering and budgeting processes. "There's still a lot we don't know."
(Excerpt) Read more at duluthnewstribune.com ...
Happy Thanksgiving.
PING!
You gotta be kidding...engineers still learning about underground utilities” etc...????
“You gotta be kidding...engineers still learning about underground utilities” etc...????”
Old buried utility lines are seldom accurately mapped.
That’s what I was wondering. You would think the initial investigation would have been more thorough.
Never been anywhere near Minnesota, but Huston is talking about some pretty basic stuff he didn’t know about. For instance, some of the first things a project engineer should investigate is utilities and soil conditions. It’s also a given that an existing road used by heavy construction equipment will need to be rebuilt.
It all sounds like the standard corruption found in most large government roads projects.
Sounds like a whole lot of excuses for incompetence to me. They didnt even get close on the big parts.
No big deal. It’s only taxpayer money.
A cousin once worked for an engineering company that searched for underground utilities before road projects began. She said that they normally performed the searches in the very early stages of a project, as part of the project planning.
She also said that it was amazing how many things went under roads that nobody knew about.
“We didn’t know what we didn’t know,” Huston said of the original engineering and budgeting processes. “There’s still a lot we don’t know.”
Absolute horsehockey. It’s not like roads and bridges are a new thing. The engineering firm needs to be strung up by their b...,thumbs.
The Duluth area has been a hotbed for organized crime and political corruption for a hundred years. Also vote fraud.
just talk to Gavin Newsom he has all the answers he knows how to control overruns just ask he will finish wrecking Ca.
What Minneapolis islamist is in charge of ways and means ?
One who thinks we can build roads the way they do in Somalia?
I can definitely attest to that.
What makes it tough, they can’t/don’t locate abandoned utilities
Makes ones heart jump like when an unexpected phone line comes up with a bucket of dirt
Gotta love unions.
Total crap. This is what they do. They build highways, bridges, and interchanges. If they can't estimate costs based on past experience and knowledge of the area and come up with a budget more accurate than plus or minus 33% then they need to look for another line of work because project management sure doesn't suit them.
The only possible explanation is that they deliberately low-balled their estimates figuring once they got deep into the project then the state would have no choice but to come up with the money they knew they needed from the beginning.
Yep nothing new for duluth unions
Them pockets ain’t gonna line THEMSELVES, Boy! ;)
“We didn’t know what we didn’t know,” Huston said of the original engineering and budgeting processes. “There’s still a lot we don’t know.”
Who hires these idiots? Sounds like something Pelosi would say while ramming something up our bums, hoping we don’t notice! Yeesh!
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