A Tale of Two Cities
Posted by Frank Byrne at 8/22/2008 1:01 PM and is filed under uncategorized 
It gets a bit tedious constantly griping about the various governmental inadequacies and screwups, it's just thats there are so damn many. (I'll address the Milwaukee Public Schools $170 million fiasco in a future post but today I wanted to accentuate the positive, seeing how those opportunities come so rarely.)
When something goes right it should be noted too. I am talking about the successsful conclusion of the Marquette Interchange road construction project here in Milwaukee. Gotta hand it to parties involved, private contractors mostly, not the government actually, but the largest highway project in state history at $810 million came in on time, under budget and with no fatalities or serious injuries. I suppose this could be a good example of how well something can work when the government just gets out of the way and let's profit oriented companies do their thing.
It is a vast improvement both aestetically and functionally. What used to be the most intimidating motoring and arguably the ugliest feature of Milwaukee is now quite impressive, a lot friendlier to both drive and look at. To see the end result go here Marquette Interchange Website
Now compare this to another huge roadway construction project in a town about the same size, Boston, and see how that went. The Big Dig as it was called, not only took longer than planned but had overuns that bloated it's original budget of $2.8 billion in 1985 to over $14.6 billion when all was said and done. Holy crap. By my math they exceeded their budget by oh, a mere 520%. Granted, some poeple are in jail, but I seriously doubt there are any public officials doing time.
here's bit form Wikipedia:
The project has incurred criminal arrests, escalating costs, death, leaks, and charges of poor execution and use of substandard materials. The Massachusetts Attorney General is demanding contractors refund taxpayers $108 million for “shoddy work”.] On January 23, 2008, it was reported that Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, the consortium that oversaw the project, would pay $407 million in restitution for its poor oversight of subcontractors (some of whom committed outright fraud), as well as primary responsibility in the death of a motorist. However, despite admitting to poor oversight and negligence as part of the settlement, the firm is not barred from bidding for future government contracts. Several smaller companies agreed to pay a combined sum of approximately $51 million.
Yeah yeah I know the projects aren't that comparable, ones a tunnel and the other a bridge, or more accurately a network of interconnecting bridges. But still, our roadway runs about 4 times the distance of their tunnel and their orignal budget was 3 and a half times bigger, which should have more than offset additional engineering and constrcution costs. But nooooooo.
What's the difference? Ours is in the Heartland, where stuff works. We don't automatically seize a huge public project as a gigantic opportunity to pilfer the national treasury. We see it as a necessary task that needs to be done as expeditiously and prudently as possible. So we get it done.
I will say however that when it comes to bringing public funds back home our Feingold and Kohl are pikers compared to the likes of Kennedy and Kerry, not even the same league. Again though, that's just the difference between us Heartlanders and them Northeasterners...
When something goes right it should be noted too. I am talking about the successsful conclusion of the Marquette Interchange road construction project here in Milwaukee. Gotta hand it to parties involved, private contractors mostly, not the government actually, but the largest highway project in state history at $810 million came in on time, under budget and with no fatalities or serious injuries. I suppose this could be a good example of how well something can work when the government just gets out of the way and let's profit oriented companies do their thing.
It is a vast improvement both aestetically and functionally. What used to be the most intimidating motoring and arguably the ugliest feature of Milwaukee is now quite impressive, a lot friendlier to both drive and look at. To see the end result go here Marquette Interchange Website
Now compare this to another huge roadway construction project in a town about the same size, Boston, and see how that went. The Big Dig as it was called, not only took longer than planned but had overuns that bloated it's original budget of $2.8 billion in 1985 to over $14.6 billion when all was said and done. Holy crap. By my math they exceeded their budget by oh, a mere 520%. Granted, some poeple are in jail, but I seriously doubt there are any public officials doing time.
here's bit form Wikipedia:
The project has incurred criminal arrests, escalating costs, death, leaks, and charges of poor execution and use of substandard materials. The Massachusetts Attorney General is demanding contractors refund taxpayers $108 million for “shoddy work”.] On January 23, 2008, it was reported that Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, the consortium that oversaw the project, would pay $407 million in restitution for its poor oversight of subcontractors (some of whom committed outright fraud), as well as primary responsibility in the death of a motorist. However, despite admitting to poor oversight and negligence as part of the settlement, the firm is not barred from bidding for future government contracts. Several smaller companies agreed to pay a combined sum of approximately $51 million.
Yeah yeah I know the projects aren't that comparable, ones a tunnel and the other a bridge, or more accurately a network of interconnecting bridges. But still, our roadway runs about 4 times the distance of their tunnel and their orignal budget was 3 and a half times bigger, which should have more than offset additional engineering and constrcution costs. But nooooooo.
What's the difference? Ours is in the Heartland, where stuff works. We don't automatically seize a huge public project as a gigantic opportunity to pilfer the national treasury. We see it as a necessary task that needs to be done as expeditiously and prudently as possible. So we get it done.
I will say however that when it comes to bringing public funds back home our Feingold and Kohl are pikers compared to the likes of Kennedy and Kerry, not even the same league. Again though, that's just the difference between us Heartlanders and them Northeasterners...
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