And a series waste of taxpayer dollars.
Posted on 09/22/2010 10:58:04 AM PDT by Tennessee Nana
A $7.25 million, 850-foot pedestrian bridge and guardhouse for the Volkswagen plant won approval from a city panel Tuesday.
The steel-and-glass structure, more than one-quarter the length of the Walnut Street Bridge that spans the Tennessee River, will serve as the main entrance to the auto plant.
The pedestrian bridge, paid from city, Hamilton County and state funds as part of the automaker’s incentive package, will cross over a stream and one of VW’s vehicle test tracks and negotiate a steep change in elevation at the site, officials said.
“It will be an extraordinary bridge,” said Steve Leach, the city’s public works administrator to the Industrial Development Board, which approved the bridge. “It will be a real statement. It’s huge.”
City Engineer Bill Payne told the panel that Gray Construction of Lexington, Ky., was the low bidder for the project on which work is to start soon. He said the pedestrian bridge is scheduled to open next spring.
Payne said the bridge will incorporate ideas generated from Auburn University students who in January won a design contest among universities.
Jan Spies, who oversees all VW factory planning worldwide, said then the winning design and the other 37 proposals would provide strong ideas to build upon the factory entrance.
He termed the competition “very successful” in generating fresh, creative ideas.
Frank Fischer, chief executive of VW’s Chattanooga operations, said the bridge not only connects employees and visitors to the plant physically but is a link between VW and the city.
Guenther Scherelis, general manager of communication for VW in Chattanooga, said the bridge is “a crucial and a symbolic link between the Volkswagen plant and the public.”
“It is the first and the last impression for employees and visitors of the plant, he said.
Payne said the span is a truss-style bridge with a glass curtain wall system.
The guardhouse and bridge will fill an existing opening next to the $40 million training center that VW recently started up. The bridge also is located close to the plant’s employee and visitor parking lots.
“It’s an interesting structure to tie the site together,” Leach said.
VW is hiring more than 2,000 employees at the $1 billion plant that’s to start operation in early 2011.
State and local governments committed incentives worth an estimated $577.4 million for the VW plant that’s expected to produce 150,000 vehicles a year.
Online: Hear Bill Payne talk about the bridge and guardhouse project. Read previous stories.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or (423) 757-6318.
Who's paying for this waste of money ???
Chattanooga taxpayers, and also TN taxpayers...
Thanks Bob the Builder...
VW is hiring more than 2,000 employees at the $1 billion plant that’s to start operation in early 2011.
State and local governments committed incentives worth an estimated $577.4 million for the VW plant that’s expected to produce 150,000 vehicles a year.....
....The pedestrian bridge, paid from city, Hamilton County and state funds as part of the automaker’s incentive package, will cross over a stream and one of VW’s vehicle test tracks and negotiate a steep change in elevation at the site, officials said.
Why are they wasting money on these people? They just said their engine plant’s going to be in Mexico!
Yeppers the engines are going to Mexico...
But apparantly this bridge was part of the deal...
The land was bare when they started...
Its not necessary and the article admits its just a nice to have thing...
Senator Corker helped get us into this mess...
and he keeps taking credit for it with phony blushes and modest sighs...
For the peoples of Tennessee sake, I hope VW is building a better product. The last several hears have been plagued with problems.
I thought we were building a bridge in WV (West Virginia).
2000 jobs V $1 BILLION building paid for by us...
Thats ONLY $500,000 a job...
Gosh thats better than Barry’s average...
Wait, thats worse...
Never mind...
LOL
Sorry no in our own back yard...
Just north of Hamilton Place Mall
Between Exit 5 and Exit 11, Ooltawah...
New road, exit everything...
Can anyone think of anything more idiotic than spending $7.25 million dollars of taxpayer money on a design that requires 2,000 employees to cross an unnecessary 850 foot pedestrian bridge to get back and forth to work every day just so they can have a structure that makes a "statement"?
But then - Hey, it's only taxpayer money.
“....its just a nice to have thing...”
####
The money quote.
And a signpost to what ails us as a nation.
When its always other people’s money, its easy to continue to indulge in expensive friviolities.
Oh, that bridge makes a statement all right.
That was my first thought too. But then I remembered Robert Byrd is dead.
I am confused. VW is hiring 2,000 employees in TN? Or they were, TN built all this stuff and they pulled out?
Or will they build the engines in Mexico and assemble the cars in TN?? I think they would avoid TN because the growing Islamic influence in TN with the mega mosque. They should go to SC.
And a series waste of taxpayer dollars.
“Can we f—k up, yes we can!”
There’s a reason why VW and other car makers (including Ford, GM and Chrysler) manufacture parts in other countries:
Ridiculous taxing and regulative obstacles in the USA.
I have friends in the auto industry supply business. These guys, in a German business with a plant here, train and hire skilled machinists....skill-sets they cannot find in the USA, unless they train people themselves.
The state of NC officials drag their feet at this company offering fully paid scholarships to high school kids to train and promise them jobs after the 2 year (highly paid) internship program. The state actually wants them to pay a stiff fee for the “privilege” of training these students for a great vocation... RIDICULOUS!
Businesses are just critters—groups that protect their interests—and if state and federal governments are HOSTILE to businesses, they will, of course, build plants elsewhere.
I don’t know if this bridge should be built...but I can guarantee you, even without the bridge, it is a LOT more expensive for VW to build and operate a plant there, than in Mexico. So it’s a wonder they built this plant here at all.
The Brooklyn Bridge cost $13.1 million to build.
On another note: bridge will incorporate ideas generated from Auburn University students
Mom would have been proud. ;)
I think you’re overstating the importance of the “mega mosque” - while there’s obviously a Muslims population in TN, most are in the middle TN / Nashville area. The state of Tennessee isn’t exactly a hotbed of Islamic activity...
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