"The Contractor Is Performing Re-Work" and Other SF Transit Classics
When you wait for an hour only for two clogged buses to show up, it may seem like nobody in this town cares about getting you from place to place. But don't you think for a minute that there aren't armies of experts at work, and hundreds of thousands of dollars being wheelbarrowed around! The SF Transportation Authority's February 14th meeting is nearly upon us, as you surely know. Let's look over the agenda.
When the the Central Freeway replacement budget allocated $5.75ish million for "ancillary projects," nobody knew what exactly that meant, so they did what San Franciscans love doing -- a study! Now the Authority's recommending adoption of the report, which advises $5.4 million in spending, mostly on traffic calming, foliage, and bike lanes. What, no vending machines?
After the jump: you paid for it, so you might as well know what's going to get spruced up.
Other recommendations include an extra $100,000 to study bus lanes on Van Ness, and an additional $160,000 to study bus lanes on Geary. Also $223,500 for Muni's "Market Street Calm the Safety Zone project," an attempt to make drivers more aware of pedestrains in those lanes between the sidewalk and the bus-catchy islands. The project's concentrated on Market, in the combat zone between Justin Herman and Octavia. Also $85,623 for crosswalk countdowns at Geary and Laguna, with more to come after, you guessed it, more studies. And $50,000 to the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center to develop "infrastructure" as part of the Mission South of Cesar Chavez Neighborhood Transportation Plan.
In other news: It may interest you to learn that the Third Street Light Rail is only 3.5% over budget! Wait, what?!?!? Oh, now we see -- it's 3.5% over it's most recently approved budget from 2004. Compared to the original figures from years ago, it's actually, like, what, four billion percent costlier than expected? As of New Year, construction was 67% complete. That sounds close enough to done for us -- let's fire up them engines now! Oh, and also? Three point five percent doesn't sound like much ... but that's actually just a bit over 20 million dollars. Ouch. Item-by-item explanations of the delays and cost overruns (including such gems as "the contractor is performing re-work") are available in a handy SFCTA memo [PDF]. In case, y'know, somebody actually wants to hold someone accountable or whatever.