More Charlotte Transit Blunders »
It's already been established (more than once) that The Old North State (or at least our little portion of it) borders on the incompetent when it comes to transit projects. As it turns out, there's more than one boondoggle waiting to happen when it comes to the LYNX Blue Line (the light rail line along South Boulevard).
But before I get into that, let me give you a little lesson in supporting a structure. This will be brief, as I have absolutely no construction experience. If you want to build something, you don't want to hire me. Still, I know a thing or two. Specifically, I know that in order to support a large structure, you need something solid on which to build it. Heck, look everywhere and anyone will tell you that you build a foundation on rock. You don't build it on sand (for example). Sand shifts. Rock - generally speaking - doesn't.
Therefore, rock is a good example of something you would build on. You would think that people who build things for a living would know this. As I've already explained, I don't build things for a living, and I know this. You might ask about my qualifications, so let me share. You see, when we noticed a small corner of our house starting to sink a bit (we're talking a quarter of an inch or so), we hired some contractors to investigate, and found out all sorts of details. In the end, we had to install supports that went down into the soft clay until they struck - wait for it - rock. We aren't the brightest people in the world, but we knew who to hire.
And as it turns out, the fine print on the contract only accounted for up to 25 feet of piping and the rock was slightly over 50 feet below. So it was a whole lot more expensive than we thought. But as I mentioned - we aren't the brightest folks and we don't do this often. Put all this together and you're probably wondering what in the world I'm talking about. What I'm getting it is that you would think that people who do this for a living, and more importantly people who spend a whole lot more money than we did (and people who spend someone else's money to boot) would do their homework so this sort of thing doesn't happen. And there, you just might be wrong. At least, if you live in Charlotte.
Because it looks like the fancy parking deck near Pineville that will be at the terminus of the aforementioned LYNX Blue Line now has to get some deeper supports. If it doesn't, it won't be able to support its own weight. The extra cost is some $1.5 million. Nice. But wait - it gets better. This isn't the only thing that's gone wrong.
The designers built an 11-foot ceiling, which sounds great, until you realize it's supposed to house an 11-foot, 7-inch boiler. I'm still no expert, but I don't think that will fit. Another parking deck was planned that won't meet building codes. In another case, a contractor was scheduled to install ticket machines on platforms, which is great - but the platforms weren't built yet, leaving a bit of a problem.
The 1998 price tag of $227 million jumped to $331 million in 2000, then $371 million in 20002, then $398.7 million in 2004 and to the current estimate of $427 million in January of 2005, which is where it's been for since the federal contract was awarded, and we thought it was pretty secure at that point. These recent gaffes, however, have the city furiously finger-pointing and getting ready to file lawsuits, which will - you guessed it - raise the cost (though surely those numbers will never show up in the bottom line). At this point, the number is still firm at $427 million. But the city has at least said "the cost will exceed that" - they've just gotten a bit smarter about it, and not given a new figure. Your guess is probably about as good as theirs.
