Posted on 03/12/2021 4:13:06 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The massive Interstate 70 construction project in central Denver is not only going to take almost a year longer than planned to complete, the state highway agency has now indicated that it’s also going to end up costing between $100 million and $150 million dollars more than the originally-planned $1.2 billion price tag.
Taxpayers are only on the hook for $12 million in extra costs, thanks to a refinancing arrangement between state and federal highway agencies and the construction company working on the project that will cover the rest.
Colorado Department of Transportation officials refuse to provide the precise cost of the refinancing, and in response to public records requests for documents about the refinancing, agency officials redacted the refinancing specifics from records submitted to the federal government.
But during a legislative hearing Tuesday, lawmakers got information the agency’s spokespeople had previously asserted wasn’t for public consumption.
“The contractors are claiming their costs are elevated, by somewhere on the order of $100 million to $150 million, relative to the original costs,” CDOT Executive Director Shoshana Lew told members of the Joint Budget Committee, the group of lawmakers that drafts the state’s annual budget and has broad influence and oversight over the state’s agencies. “The refinanced amount was for about a half a billion dollars.”
After Lew described the $100 million to $150 million range of possible extra costs, CDOT spokesman Matt Inzeo wrote in an email that the agency will still not tell the public exactly how much will be included in the refinancing.
“The precise number will become public if and when the loan is approved and associated underwriting materials are finalized,” Inzeo wrote.
(Excerpt) Read more at gazette.com ...
PING!
Money laundering.
Not to worry, the state and federal highway agencies will pay the extra costs out of their own stash ....
Boston’s Big Dig goes West!
“wrote in an email that the agency will still not tell the public exactly how much will be included in the refinancing.”
We peasants are not entitled to know.
Now they have to include The Big Guy’s cut.
My career was in big commercial and governmental construction. The number of newspaper articles that correctly explain the complex issues of this type of event are less than 1 out of a 100 in my experience.
Sell more Weed that will pay for it ,LOL
Or California high speed rail moving East. It’s like a perfect storm, crashing together in the Rockies.
Biden loves trains.
I’ll bet the next huge 2 trillion legislation scheduled for May has a lot of dough for trains.
Could be vast quantities somehow went to pot.
I lived in the Denver area in the late 70’s. The I-25 and I-70 interchange was a death trap!
In addition to the fuster-cluck known as I-25... tearing it all up from Ft. Collins to Colorado Springs...
And the fuster-cluck known as I-76...
Colorado Ping ( Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list.)
That's why it's called the mouse trap.
And if any of us did a fraction of what the giverment does we would be in jail where the sun never shines.
Complex? Pffft.
Obfuscation.
Blast and dern it, I have not gotten one thin dime from government corruption since I moved to this state.
I want at least $5 million of that cocaine and hooker money. It’s my turn.
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