Ground Zero Contract
For a time, the federally-funded project to build a transit hub at the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks was considered by the New York Times to be "the single note of optimism in a cesspool of cynicism and politics."
But now, as the Associated Press reports, the project "is hundreds of millions of dollars over budget and five years behind schedule -- delays that are slowing construction of the Sept. 11 memorial and most other projects on the 16-acre site."
The story by AP writer Amy Westfeldt shows that the cost of the project is likely to rise by $500 million to $3 billion -- something that project managers at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey knew two years ago.
The reasons for the delays and cost overruns sound disturbingly familiar to Government Inc.:
"The federal consultant reports assessing risks on the project are prepared every three months for the Federal Transit Administration, which funded the hub with an initial $1.9 billion grant.
"In July 2006, the report by the Carter & Burgess consultants concluded the hub had less than a 10 percent chance of being on budget. Every three months, the consultants issued new reports that estimated delays as high as 15 months. By early 2008, the consultants said it was less than 5 percent likely to be on budget.
"Failure to make timely decisions, delays in procuring contractors, constant design changes and the extra cost of paying staff for a longer-than-expected job were repeatedly cited as indicators of budget and schedule problems in 18 months of reports reviewed by The Associated Press.
"'This is a large, schedule-driven project with an aggressive design schedule,' the report read in July 2006, referring to 'rushed,' incomplete design documents that were causing delays."
By Robert O'Harrow |
October 7, 2008; 12:36 PM ET
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Posted by: Ranlin | October 9, 2008 5:12 PM
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The federal government can fund millions and billions for transit systems, border fences and compensation for WTC illegal immigrants but can't acknowledge their own federal WTC responders, a Vietnam Veteran and 10,000 federal government employees who have been left on their own, even "out of scope" to be excluded in any WTC statistical data!
When will a political lunacy end so my husband, a "fallen officer", along with thousands of others can be added to the National Law Enforcement Fallen Officers Memorial Wall in Washington, DC without any denials due to death not directly related to the WTC dust but illegal immigrants can get $4.2 million, allow to stay in the USA as legal citizens, can't invest the $4.2 million legally due to legal limbo with lawyers and Department of Homeland Security?
Out of sight out of mind, is just another way to show guilt, fraud and lies.