Lynx Blue Line (South Corridor)

[uptownliving]

CATS has plenty of money in the bank to cover anymore cost overruns on the South LRT...the problem is that this line is projected to go over budget...not that CATS doesn't have the money.

Also the facts show that City Council has known about the problems with the South LRT all along...as they have approved many change orders (again this is all public record) to increase the budget on the South LRT. City Council was told explictly back in April that Parsons was fired because they were incompetent and causing cost overruns on the project. Maybe City Council should have been told of this earlier...I don't know..hopefully the report in a week or so will shed some light on this.

I also think the record clearly shows that Tober has been busting his but to correct any problem that pops up on the project. I havn't seen any evidence of incompetence on his part where he is made aware of a problem and sits and does nothing.

[monsoon]

Also the facts show that City Council has known about the problems with the South LRT all along...

..... Maybe City Council should have been told of this earlier...I......

Huh?

CATS can't spend more money than has been alloted for this project without authorization. It's not their money. They have been to the FTA with revised plans four times to get this authorization. All have been rejected.

Sounds like incompetance to me.

[atlrvr]

I think one of the biggest problems in all of this is the general population doesn't care about facts, or doesn't understand transit planning/construction to comprehend the issues.

If Parsons took full responisibility for every mistake and paid to correct it, the majority of the population would still call CATS incompetent and LRT a total disaster.....luckily we don't live in a democratic society, so their opinions don't bring this whole project to a screeting halt.

BUT, I have to wonder how long politicians will stake their reputation to mass transit. I really like McCrory because he will publically maintain that he believes this whole project is worth it, and that we should continue with additional lines.....no other Mayoral candidate will make that commitment.

We now have candidates like Dulin who are staking their reputation to the belief that transit will fail....it's important that more politicians don't hitch their wagon to the anti-transit platform, which means CATS needs to outperform expectations from this point forward....or course we all have been saying that.

[uptownliving]

Huh?

CATS can't spend more money than has been alloted for this project without authorization. It's not their money. They have been to the FTA with revised plans four times to get this authorization. All have been rejected.

Sounds like incompetance to me.

All of these cost overruns will come out of the Local share (0.5 cent sales tax) not from State or Federal money. In your previous post you made it sound as if CATS was about to run out of money and that is simply not the case...the 1/2 cent sales tax fund has $100M+ sitting in the bank currently unallocted...and its only use is for transit. The cost overruns will be covered by that bank account with the $100M+ sitting in it. Yes they are about to hit the limits on their budget but the reality is that there is more money that can easily be added to their budget.

[monsoon]

From the Charlotte Observer...

"The Federal Transit Administration hired KJM & Associates to oversee the project. By last winter, KJM's reports concluded that CATS would not have enough money to finish."

[uptownliving]

Those KJM reports are all public record and if you actually go look at them it is clear they are talking about CATS not being able to meet their budget for the South Line. CATS is not about to run out of money...it is just the South line that is overbudget but there is plenty of money in the bank to cover those cost overruns.

[monsoon]

I have no doubt the county or the city has the money to cover the cost overruns. Nobody here has ever suggested that we are broke.

[dubone]

Can the federal government tell us we can't spend any extra local money? I mean, if local money and lawsuit proceeds cover the overruns, will it still trigger the congressional review?

[monsoon]

^Apparently so it seems.

[dubone]

Ok, so that is the key here. Although, it does seem that based on KJM's reports, the council should have known long ago. Meaning, they should reasonably have already known, rather than they should have been told. I mean, why is it Syfert's job to digest it down to little words and regurgitate it in the council's beaks? If the information was available, and was a clear interpretation of all the change requests that council has been getting at most of these meetings all summer, why is that the council considers themselves to be not told.

[monsoon]

^It's my guess they were not told. Or they were not given the information in a manner that was significant. A good buerocrat knows how to cover their ass in these cases and this seems to be right up that alley.

[dubone]

Maybe so. But with all those change requests being voted on, and a major firing of a contractor (that was reported on in the news and everywhere) due to cost overruns, my feeling is that it was not rocket science.

I mean, I think everyone thought it was just minor overruns that would have to be made up for somewhere else. But then the shocker came very recently with the parking deck. And now the fan is being hit.

But we'll see. It may be that this thing is worse that I'm interpretting.

[monsoon]

If the FTA is rejecting recovery plans and Syfert and Tober are going to DC to explain themselves, its pretty bad.

[uptownliving]

^It's my guess they were not told. Or they were not given the information in a manner that was significant. A good buerocrat knows how to cover their ass in these cases and this seems to be right up that alley.

A good politician knows how to cover their ass as well and I think we will be seeing some of that in the future concerning this issue. The fact is that the council was told in April...they can deny it if they want to...or say they dont remember...but the meeting minutes tell the tale.

[monsoon]

This was the lead story on WSOC TV's 6pm newscast. As usual they did not provide any relevent information as to what is going on despite an interview with Syfert. My overall impression is they didn't cast this line in a positive light which is pretty disappointing considering this is the #1 watched newscast in the city. One example is they found the time to interview a bus rider at woodlawn and south blvd who said she didn't thing the train was going to make any difference.

Syfert clearly said she did not know anything was wrong until July but now that she knows, she will do everything she can to restore the public's confidence in the system. My conclusion, they are setting up Tober to take the fall for this.

Related but, not reported on WSOC, McCroy made a speach at UC to discuss the importance of LR to that area. He said that UC should not lose confidence in LRT for the area despite the problems on the south line. No doubt this is where he wants the next project to go.

[MZT]

I follow Light Rail reports pretty closely, and even I'd forgotten about Parsons being fired early this year. I'm sure most people in Meck were not paying attention at the time.

So, revelation of just how bad they screwed up is "news".

OK, this is pretty self-serving. But I bought a house within walking distance of a LR station, and I wanna see the thing get built. At least I can see my tax money going towards something I really would use, (unlike Mecklenburg's miserable school system. )

The review and delays caused by whatever caused these cost overrruns will cost us many times over, in lost opportunity. For example, we may really have to build the North line ourselves, just to show the Feds we can use the public's money wisely on the other lines. Hey, If you were an esteemed representative from California or Texas, with your own transit funds at stake, what whispers would you be making for CATS right now?

[A2]

Just to add salt to the wound, WBTV's lead story at 6 was titled "Crisis with Light Rail". It detailed cost over runs in the tens of millions of dollars!!!

When all of the news stations are touting tens of millions of dollars in cost overruns and the city manager is calling it a CRISIS, you can pretty much bet the rest of the trasit dollars from the FEDS will be done for.

I think it is a sham and a crock that a few individuals might have wrecked an otherwise awesome plan for Charlotte's tranist future. I am fuming mad at the fact that there was little or no communication between CATS, and the city. This is an outrage!!!

For all of those for trasit, now would be a great time to write your local representaitve and let them know you still support it. Then I would ask for the ones responsible for not communicating the issues facing Light rail to be fired ASAP!!!

A2

[MZT]

I have a feeling the four declined correction plans by the Feds are a hardball tactic. They may be ready to just demand oversight, period. They can keep saying "no" as the deadlines loom. If they stick to "No oversight, no money" -- it will be Charlotte that blinks first.

[dubone]

I'm depressed just thinking about this project. [Whatever and whoever is responsible for the cost overruns] is really pissing me off at the moment.

We should be able to wallow in the joys of our pet project being under construction, with the trains being delivered and being more than halfway through construction.

Oh well.

[uptownliving]

News14 is reporting that Ron Tober offered his resignation last week however City Manager Pam Syfert would not accept it. So much for the theory that Ron is the scapegoat....any other theories?

http://www.news14charlotte.com/content/top...asp?ArID=126923

I would have to agree that now is not the time to fire Tober. If there was a time to fire him I would say it would be when the South Line is complete next year.

While you are at it check out the video of the story at News14...it has some nice footage of the LRT vehicle rolling down the tracks.

[archiham04]

I'm a little late to the conversation, and I apologize if I am repeating previous sentiments... but from what I have read, I think this is being blown out of proportion. If you look at the types of "mistakes", they are VERY typical construction contingencies. Scheduling problems happen. Coordination problems happen (alternate equipment is often bought for a room that cannot accomodate it). Unsuitable soil happens (on almost EVERY construction project I have been a part of). A typical contingency for a construction project is 5%. I think that Charlotte Weekly reported last week that the cost was estimated at 5%. 5% of the total cost of the project, or 5% of construction completed to date, they did not say. 5% of 427,000,000 is 21,350,000. 5% of 256,200,000 (60% of 427,000,000) is 12,810,000

I think they had bigger reasons to cause a stink. Parsons was involved in the Big Dig in Boston. Not exactly a resume builder.

[monsoon]

They had a $33M contigency which they have already blown out of the water and have already cut things from the system to make up for it. That debacle happened last year. This $22M is on top of that and because there is no more contigency, more local taxes are going to have to be allotted to cover it. The debate has yet to happen on where these taxes are going to come from. They also are now in default of the federal conditions that dictate the maximum that can be spent on the line and are desperately trying to work out a plan the Feds will accept that will allow them to continue to receive federal support. The Feds have already rejected 4 of these plans.

Oh and lets not forget that we also had a 6-8 month delay in getting funding because they made mistakes in complying with FTA's requests on information about cost effectiveness. This also increased costs of the system.

There is still more than 14 months left for them to build this thing, I have no confidence they won't be back again asking for even more money to get it finished. It's hemoraging money right and left, yet nobody is held accountable for it. It is imperative the city find out what happened, and then put together a plan to make damn sure it doesn't happen again. Outside this forum, public support for mass transit is going down the toilet and the city needs to go into full time damage control to explain to the people why we should continue to support taxes for mass transit.

[dubone]

If those problems are typical of construction projects, then I WOULD worry that Tober has screwed up, and is just scapegoating Parsons.

Also, I didn't realize this until last week, but apparently Parsons Transportation Group (CATS's contractor) is a different company than Parsons Brinkerhoff (of Big Dig notoriety). Maybe it is just a chinese wall or something, and they are part of the same ownership group, but at minimum, they are officially different companies.

[archiham04]

Ms Tara says they are the same parent company and I believe EVERYTHING she says.

[atlrvr]

They are completely different.....Parsons Transporation was involved in some parts of the big dig, but most of the cost overruns are attributed to Parsons Brinkerhoff Quade.....actaully Parsons Tranportation has a pretty good reputation, with most of the notoriety being attributed to Parson Brink......, including the collapse of the Red Line tunnel in LA.