Don't Back Down

Everywhere except for where they are needed, that is. While the Charlotte City Council tries to make up their collective mind about what sort of mass transit to approve on the East Side, it seems that one fundamental question is going unanswered.

As everyone got caught up in whether or not the concrete for a new section of Interstate 485 would be ready in time (a plant apparently had some sort of crisis, resulting in a supply problem, now resolved), they forgot to install the supports for the signs that direct drivers to the right place. Even worse, this isn't the first time that it's happened.

That's right - it's happened before. Just before the opening of the new Albemarle Road interchange off of Independence last July, someone discovered that there were no signs in place warning drivers of the new lane shift that was now going to take place, and everyone was just amazed that something this huge could slip through the cracks. It would never happen again, they said.

It just did.

So now the company who fabricates the steel wants an extra $86,000 - on top of $242,000, already "locked in" in 2002 - but the state engineer overseeing the project says that it's not the responsibility of the taxpayers to foot the bill. If the taxpayers won't pay and the steel company won't do it until they get paid, where exactly will the signs come from?

I suspect we'll see the government give before anything happens. But stay tuned. This should be interesting.