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Today's NY Times editorial, Build a New Hudson River Tunnel discusses the need for a new rail tunnel to protect against what Senator Chuck Schumer calls "“a regional transportation Armageddon.” As the editorial describes it "(t)he first step would be a meeting of all parties that would benefit from the project, including representatives from Amtrak, New Jersey Transit, the states of New Jersey and New York, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the federal government and Congress. Each of these institutions will have to participate, and each will eventually 'write a check.'" There is a sorely missing group of parties here the construction unions, the governmental officials in charge of "poverty" programs and "community organizers.
While Tappan Zee litigation continues relating to "the wage difference between carpenters and dock builders" where "(c)arpenters are paid $70.11 per hour, compared with dock builders that make $92.47 per hour" no consideration is given to a "workfare" program where benefits recipients would apprentice and be paid, say, $22 an hour to learn a trade and $40-$45 per our when working at these trades. The cost numbers of $20 billion to build these tunnels and related train station improvements is eye-popping and ultimately unfeasible. No matter how badly needed nothing is going to get built at those figures.
There are other projects just as urgently needed. New York needs at least one more water tunnel, so the existing three water tunnels can be shut down seriatim and rebuilt. Again labor costs are prohibitive. Other gold-plating on these projects needs to be removed, but all must participate. These projects must happen and the costs must be made bearable.
Another NYT piece clearly lays out why infrastructure projects cost so much around here (New York), so don't get your hopes up too much on those North River Tunnels.
Another NYT piece clearly lays out why infrastructure projects cost so much around here (New York), so don't get your hopes up too much on those North River Tunnels.
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Originally Posted by BugsyPal
Another NYT piece clearly lays out why infrastructure projects cost so much around here (New York), so don't get your hopes up too much on those North River Tunnels.
LOL - so only 700 jobs could be identified yet they were employing 900 people.
Sounds like one of those episodes of 'The Sopranos' where the Soprano Crew are all sitting around the construction sites playing cards.
Quote:
Originally Posted by New York Times
An accountant discovered the discrepancy while reviewing the budget for new train platforms under Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan.
The budget showed that 900 workers were being paid to dig caverns for the platforms as part of a 3.5-mile tunnel connecting the historic station to the Long Island Rail Road. But the accountant could only identify about 700 jobs that needed to be done, according to three project supervisors. Officials could not find any reason for the other 200 people to be there.
“Nobody knew what those people were doing, if they were doing anything,” said Michael Horodniceanu, who was then the head of construction at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs transit in New York. The workers were laid off, Mr. Horodniceanu said, but no one figured out how long they had been employed. “All we knew is they were each being paid about $1,000 every day.”
The discovery, which occurred in 2010 and was not disclosed to the public, illustrates one of the main issues that has helped lead to the increasing delays now tormenting millions of subway riders every day: The leaders entrusted to expand New York’s regional transit network have paid the highest construction costs in the world, spending billions of dollars that could have been used to fix existing subway tunnels, tracks, trains and signals.
Cities of this size are a pathology of modern civilization. All the problems are magnified exponentially, especially those of infrastructure. Limit cities to a maximum of one million people and many of the issues such as being discussed here, would not develop. The long term degradation of the environment in a wide radius around such cities, will be devastating, as these huge "death zones" will have concentrated toxins that can never be effectively removed.
I'm pretty sure Gateway will go, though. Stayed tuned.
It hasn't as of yet.
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