Within the last week, a series of stories have come out in the press:(ie) “Report: Series of errors botched California bridge project” by Los Angeles Times : Monday Aug 10.2020
Documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times reveal steel supports snapped as a result of neglect, work damage, miscommunications and possible design problems…"
There are a number of artices listed in a google search; some under paywalls, and others available on Internet. The major thrust of them seem to allude to the number of ‘consultants’ hired,layers of ‘management’ on the project.{'onerous" is apparently, an over-used description}}.
The major implications seem to be that this project is now years behind the platted, original schedules; over coordinated, and so many contractor/consultants on the job, blame will be nearly impossible to ‘pin’ on any one of them. Not to mention, that ‘costs’ are increasing exponentially.
California High Speed rail may be ‘speed’, mostly in name only, as compleation is farther, and farther in the future? [:-^] Comments ? [sigh]
Tell an engineer that he has half the funds necessary to fulfill the specs for a job and they will still attempt to complete the task with the funds that ARE available.
Don’t forget the other scams, i.e. environmental impact study after environmental impact study after environmental impact study after environmental impact study after environmental impact study…
Talk about a protection racket!
If Al Capone were alive he’d be green with envy. “Jeez, I wish I’d a thought o’ that!”
Engineers live to see their creations completed, however, they have to bring them to completion.
Fortunately I never got caught in those circumstance, that being said my father got caught in serious salary reduction account economic conditions in 1959 when there were concurrent Miner, Auto worker and Steel worker strikes that virtually gutted the traffic from the B&O and his salary was reduced 25%. He continued to do his job to the best of his abilities.
To be fair it was not a Trump restriction it was an Obama condition for accepting the money in the first place. Republican Ray LaHood who supervised the HSR grants under Obama was the guy that wrote in the strict provisions of the grants. The grants turn into loans if they are not applied directly to HSR (they also could not be diverted to non-rail passenger usage) and/or the HSR project does not meet it’s original project date to be up and running. Illinois was subject to the exact same terms on the money it accepted for Chicago to St. Louis…Michigan the same deal for money accepted for Chicago to Detroit. Trump is just enforcing the provisions that were laid out before the grant was accepted. You can get this info via Trains Magazine (past issues) or via Google.
Illinois had to steeply raise taxes to complete it’s contribution for Chicago to St. Louis but also needed to seek a waiver due to the equipment snafu (which it obtained). California under Newsome was not even going to apply for a waiver, instead he copped an attitude the money was in his hands now and there was nothing the Feds could do…he never bothered to read the terms of the grant or he would not have given that impression publicly. That is what got California in trouble to begin with over the funds and the dispute with the Trump administration. Because the terms are the grant reverts to a loan to be paid back to the Feds if the state deviates from the intended usage of the funds or does not complete the project on the specified timeline.
The “cables snapping” and other problems reminds me of the issues with the eastern portion of the Bay Bridge and the replacement for the Transbay Transit Terminal. My impression is that the state government is having a lot of issues managing large civil engineering projects.
I also got that impression when I read XPress West was going to build solo to Las Vegas instead of a partially shared ROW with the states HSR project. Seems like XPress West wants nothing to do with California’s project.
Read the LA times report willlink later. IMHO a lot has to do with the ongoing inspectors notdoing their jobs because 1. Not enough inspectors. 2. A detailed job inspetion of critical items given to the inspectors. This poster got caught in that bind. The post tensioning of the bridge is very importat to prevent what happen at FIU.
The cables were stored out doors and got wet starting corrison. The conduits that the cables were to be placed were not kept closed allowing water to get in the tubes. The tubes failed a pressure test before cable insertation. Dry air or maybe nitrogen was not applied thru tube to clear any moisture .
As for the temporary steel supports and their wire cross bracing breaking ? ?