Posted on 02/15/2020 10:38:50 PM PST by grundle
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (ABC7) — Metro has spent $3.8 million and taken five years to build two unfinished bike racks - at East Falls Church and Vienna Metro Stations.
WMATA originally budgeted $600,000 for each rack, but the price tag has soared to $1.9 million each.
The covered bike shelters will house 92 bikes, putting the price tag at more than $20,000 per bike. Future costs to finish the projects could raise that number even higher.
The projects were supposed to be completed in December of 2015 but remain unfinished in 2020.
Metro says due to “Numerous construction quality issues, including damage caused by a contractor repeatedly drilling into an underground duct bank, led to lengthy delays.”
The transit agency severed ties with the first contractor four years ago. Metro says a second contractor also did not meet its quality control standards. In a statement to ABC7, Metro says “Quality control issues with contractors can take time to sort out, but Metro determined it was more important to get the project done right rather than get it done quickly.”
In January 2020 signs at the fenced-off construction site said the project would wrap up in late 2018. After ABC7 aired its story in January, the signs were removed.
ABC7 has requested all documents related to this project between the transit agency and the contractors involved though a Freedom of Information Act request. We have still not received any documents.
While regular riders say they have not seen construction workers here in months, WMATA says it hopes to have the project completed in the next few months.
It is really something how “officials” can waste OPM (Other Peoples’ Money). They should be arrested.
Many years ago the always-nitwit DIMs/LIBs in Fairfax County VA bought many hundreds of police cars that they allowed to rot in parking lots for years...never used. Criminals.
Funny...I would never want to be in a Chinese built building...
Nope, as someone who do construction, I’d make sure it will stand a Hurricane, Earthquake, Tornado and a flood at the same time.
Uncle Lou leaves message with transit agency head meet me at the bar we can split the money there.
It not a real hospital.
Everybody involved with this phony balony project should be investigated and probably prosecuted for fraud.
Very perceptive comment.
Can it store more than 92 bikes?
/Why would you need a covered bike rack?
Because it rains while you’re not on your bike. It snows, etc. Now, if you are a frequent bike commuter, you probably have at least a plastic bag to go over your seat while you’re gone, but it’s nice to have the whole bike covered.
I live in a university town that not only is partial to bikes, but frequently hosts a leg of a major bike tour in my state. However, no way on God’s green earth would these Midwesterners countenance spending that much money on a just bike shelter.
For $12.8 million we got a new facility with parking, bike lockers, showers, a bus interchange, wi-fi, and electric charging stations. Worth the money, I think.
I’m from DC. I know how expensive things can get in the metro area and the likelihood of ‘overruns’ (usually into someone’s pocket). I’m not surprised they couldn’t even build bike shelters without it turning into a financial disaster.
Biking rain covers : )
https://tinyurl.com/t4949da
I believe automobile parking structures cost about $60k per stall.
Only in a Democrat run city could 2 bike racks for 92 bikes cost $3.8 million and take 5+ years to build
How much energy has been wasted on this project for 92 bikes? Why didn’t they just buy two more diesel/electric buses, which could have been transporting those people for the past five years and many more years to come?
Eagle Scouts probably are couples now, right?
You’re posting about this 7 months later. I’m sure that those bike racks are done by now.
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I was at a government facility off and on for 6 months. In the locker room/rest room that I used there was a box sitting on the floor near a sink that was missing.
2 months later the sink had been removed from the box.
Another 2 months and the box was gone.
Another 2 months and the new sink’s parts were scattered about in the corner.
I never made it back to see if it got put in. Similar crap at other government sites. It is just crazy.
I wonder how many really died
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