Saturday, October 2

Wow, we are SO in the wrong business!

How much would you bid to expand an existing, servicable, three mile road from two lanes to four? And how long would your crew like to have to get it done?

$3.2 million? Sounds reasonable.

$5.5 million? Yeah, even that makes sense.

$15 million? Mmmm, well, okay...

How about $52 million, with a pending additional $10 million (without which, said project would "languish", according to State legislators).

Now, could you do it- from design to completion- in three years? No? How about five? No, hmmm, well, ok, you can have six. To begin with. (But anyone who has worked in construction knows that's only a preliminary target date. It'll move.)

This project won't begin until 2007, and is scheduled to be completed in 2010.

For the most part, this whole project is a joke, but the clincher for me was reading "...project was credited to increases in vehicular registration fees". OH MY GOODNESS!!! *banging my head against the monitor*

Now, it's not as if they have actually purchased the right of ways yet. There are 120 properties along this three mile stretch that will need to be negotiated for (under "eminent domain"). This won't take place until the engineering is completed. Then the purchase.

Roy Dyson and John Bohanan, who voted against the measure (as well as the fee increases), did not attend Thursday's roadside ceremony to commemorate the project. They'll have "way to go" letters from this old gal come Monday morning.

My goodness, but it just gets curiouser and curiouser...

Dy

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