Posted on 01/13/2005 9:26:42 AM PST by SmithL
State Senate leaders condemned the Schwarzenegger administration's decision to halt work on a suspension-span foundation for the new Bay Bridge, saying Wednesday the move could drive up the price for a bridge that is already on a collision course with the $6 billion mark.
The stop-work order issued this month could add more than $100 million in penalties to a foundation contract that was supposed to cost $177 million, although administration officials contend the additional penalties would be closer to $30 million.
The contract is one facet of a construction project that has been mired in political delays, miscalculated price estimates, closed-door decisions and rising costs in the 15 years since the Loma Prieta earthquake brought down a portion of the current eastern span that connects Yerba Buena Island with Oakland.
Its replacement was once estimated to cost $1.3 billion. A state audit released last month pegged the cost at $5.9 billion.
Sen. Tom Torlakson, D-Antioch, chairman of the Senate transportation committee, will hold hearings Jan. 26 and Feb. 1 to investigate the delays and rising costs, as well as allegations of project mismanagement by Caltrans.
In addition, the hearings will examine the Schwarzenegger administration's proposal to scrap a suspension bridge in favor of a plainer causeway and its related decision to cancel the existing contract to build a foundation for the suspension span.
Because no deal has been reached on the governor's proposal, Torlakson said it was premature to stop work on the suspension span, a segment that state law says must be built as designed.
"I'm calling on Caltrans to not cancel any further contracts," Torlakson told reporters Wednesday in Sacramento.
Torlakson and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, said the hearings will investigate why the administration thinks it can save money and time when there has been no expert consensus on those assertions.
Perata said the suspension span was chosen seven years ago after more than two dozen public hearings. The administration's decision was made behind closed doors without sufficient explanation, Perata said.
"The change being offered has never been offered up for public scrutiny," Perata said. "We don't even know how they arrived at the decision."
Caltrans Director Will Kempton has repeatedly said the design change could lead to faster construction because engineers have already figured out the technical difficulties of a plainer causeway. A suspension span, by contrast, could provide many technical obstacles during construction, potentially raising costs, he has said.
His boss, Transportation Secretary Sunne Wright McPeak, on Wednesday reiterated the administration's preference.
"The skyway provides the best option, and the least risk, for the bridge to be completed on time and within budget," McPeak said. "To get this bridge built, the Legislature must act now to approve a funding plan that is fair to commuters and taxpayers of the Bay Area and the entire state. The people of the Bay Area have waited long enough."
Perata and Torlakson, however, say Bay Area drivers have already paid enough in previous bridge toll hikes and argue that they should not be stuck with even higher tolls to pay for the overruns. Even without a design swap, the bridge in its current form would need a new funding plan to pay for overruns.
Perata suggested a statewide seismic bond would be a fair way to raise money for the bridge, as well as other projects throughout the state.
---along with other important matters , the San Francisco Board of Supervisors wants to rename the bridge after Emperor Norton---
The entire project should be stopped and every piece of financial data audited.
Something smells fishy about this. Hehe... Bridge, water, fish.. Sometimes I kill myself.
The need to emulate the Dumbarton Bridge. Clean, strong, simple and cheap.
The > they. Gummy keyboard (not mine, a public one ... ew!).
--and I suspect that is the case with every government expenditure in the entire state--although doing it to the "blue" counties would suffice--
20,000 comedians out of work, and there you are, trying to be funny.
;)
"...emulate the Dumbarton Bridge..."
I agree completely, I take the Dumbarton to work every day. And several times a month I ride my bicycle over in the bike lane.
The California Democrats are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO corrupt. The Bay Bridge fiasco is quickly making the Big Dig look like an honest mistake.
State Sen. Don Perata (Dem...what else?) is now jumping in to defend the existing cesspool of graft since it is his Dem patrons who are benefitting from it.
I'm patiently awaiting another FBI raid on the California Capitol to put a few more Dems in prison.
I am not planning on quitting my day job anytime soon.
I am not planning on quitting my day job anytime soon.
Is the new bridge going to replace the entire span or just the eastern section from YBI to Oakland?
just the eastern section from YBI to Oakland
Here in the Soviet Socialist Counties of Northern Kalifornia we are so screwed that citizens designate "clockwise" or "counterclockwise" when dealing with government employees.
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