Who Should Pay For Forth Worth Boondoggle's Incompetence Cost?

This blogging falls into the category of seeing something in an online west coast news source, usually the Seattle Times, about something I would not expect to see in a Texas news source, usually the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, about a similar type subject, again, usually in Fort Worth.

Way back in 2014 Fort Worth tried to start building three simple little bridges to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

Shortly before that bridge building tried to begin, in Seattle, what was then the world's largest drill, began tunneling under downtown Seattle.

That drilling soon ran into a snag in the form of a steel pipe, which ended up delaying the tunnel drilling for around two years.

That tunnel has now long been completed and open to traffic. And now, apparently, the tunneling contractor has been ordered to pay Washington state $57 million for being at fault for the long tunneling stall.

Meanwhile, in Fort Worth, after more than five years those three simple little bridges are no where near being open to traffic, long stalled for who knows what variety of reasons. Not known due to the fact the facts of the bridge building stall not being transparently known to the Fort Worth public, due to the fact that Fort Worth lacks an actual responsible newspaper doing actual responsible investigatory journalism.

In the Seattle Times article, about this court order, mention was made of the fact that the state spent an amount similar to $57 million to continue managing the tunnel project whilst it was stalled. You know, continuing to need to pay all those contracted to be part of the project.

I have long wondered, and asked, how many millions of Fort Worth's stalled bridge building dollars have been spent paying the staff of the Trinity River Vision Authority all these years since the project should have been long ago completed, had this project been underway in an area of modern America free of corruption and nepotism.

Fort Worth Congresswoman, Kay Granger's son, J.D., has been paid over $200K a year, plus perks and benefits, for years and years; many years more than what such a relatively simple project should have taken to accomplish, but which is now not projected to be completed until some point way into the next decade.

This for a project originally touted as being a vitally needed flood control project.

Vitally needed in an area of Fort Worth which the Trinity River has not flooded for well over a half century, due to levees already in place, already paid for.

How come no one has been sued over what has become America's Dumbest Boondoggle? Originally known as the Trinity River Vision, before it morphed into the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

Before simply being almost universally referred as just The Boondoggle?

How is it that Kay Granger's son is still sucking up taxpayer money for a job which my now pretty much any sane person can see has been totally botched?

And now a new employee has been added, paid even more than J.D. Granger, to try and fix the mess.

It is perplexing how one town in America can manage to dig a massive tunnel under its downtown, while another town in America can't seem to manage to build three simple little bridges.

And yet some wonder why we refer to some areas of America as modern America, you know, where city parks have no outhouses, streets have sidewalks, public works projects work for the public, you know that type modern concept...

Happy Easter Bunny Bertha Inspired Questions

This is a combo Bertha and Happy Easter Bunny blogging due to the screen cap I capped from a Seattle Times article about Bertha included a chocolate Easter Bunny.

Happy Easter, one and all.

Just remembered, in addition to being a combo Bertha and Happy Easter Bunny blogging this is also yet one more of those popular bloggings about something I read in a west coast online news source, usually the Seattle Times, about something I would not be expecting to read in a Texas online news source, usually the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, about something going on in Texas, or Fort Worth.

I think I have mentioned previously that Fort Worth is currently host to America's Biggest Boondoggle, also known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision. The vision is a bizarre pseudo public works project the public has never been allowed to vote on, which claims to be a much needed flood prevention plan,  preventing flooding where flooding has not happened for well over a half a century due to levees the rest of America helped pay for way back in the 1950s.

This bizarre public works project is also an economic development scheme designed to line the pockets of multiple players in the Fort Worth oligarchy, including Fort Worth's Congresswoman, Kay Granger, and her son, J.D., who, as America's Biggest Boondoggle's Executive Director is responsible for the non-progress of this project which has been limping along for most of this century.

The current symbol of just how bad this boondoggle has  become is a bridge building project which began way back in 2014,  with an astonishing four year bridge building project timeline, with bridge construction now stalled for over a year, with no explanation as to why the simple  little bridges being built  over dry land are no longer being built.

Recently the Trinity River Vision Authority released its Spring 2017 Trinity River Vision Update with no update as to what has stalled the bridge construction. We blogged about this in Spring 2017 Non Existent Trinity River Vision Bridge Debacle UPDATE.

Which brings us to what I read in the Seattle Times today about the Bertha Tunnel Project in an article titled Inside the Highway 99 tunnel: Bertha’s done digging, but the roadway work rolls on in.

Bertha began her tunnel boring about the same time the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle began trying to build bridges over dry land. Bertha ran into a snag which stopped boring for around two years. But, Bertha eventually got back boring and is now leaving the tunnel behind her, with road decks now being added and the tunnel expected to be open to traffic in early 2019.

Apparently the Highway 99 Alaskan Viaduct Replacement Project is well engineered by qualified adults who know what  they are doing. Part of the project design  took into account the possibility of a boring delay.

Three illustrative paragraphs...

Joe Hedges, state Highway 99 administrator, recently said the completion of the tunnel itself represents halftime for the project. Nonetheless, workers were busy installing roadways even during Bertha’s two-year breakdown, and some 600 people remain on the job.

That by itself prevented delays from getting worse, said Brian Russell, vice president for HNTB, which wrote the technical designs for the tunnel structures.

The tunnel’s relatively new “design-build” contract, which hands final engineering to the bidders, gave Seattle Tunnel Partners (STP) flexibility to juggle its work schedules so the upper deck and walls kept advancing north, behind the tunnel machine. Under conventional bidding, where the state writes the design, the decking might be done by other companies, and might not begin until after the underground tube is finished.

Okay, why do we not read anything similar to the above in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about the problems with the Trinity River Vision project? Who designed the project? Who are the contractors? Why is whoever is  the bridge building contractor not asked what the problem is which has stalled  construction?

Read the Seattle Times Inside the Highway 99 tunnel: Bertha’s done digging, but the roadway work rolls on in article and notice how detailed the information is. Including animated graphics showing each stage of the ongoing tunnel construction. Why do you not see anything even remotely similar in the Fort Wort Star-Telegram about any aspect of what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle?

Why do the Fort Worth locals whose town is being impacted by being the host to America's Biggest Boondoggle not demand answers as to what and who has caused this mess? What causes a population to be so passive? How can Americans in one part of America be so different from Americans in another part? Better education?

I have no idea what the explanation is. All I know for sure is the toleration for incompetent corruption in Fort Worth, in various forms, is extremely perplexing...

After 4 Years Bertha Is Near Her End Meanwhile In Fort Worth

The after four years part of the headline caught my attention in this Seattle Times The end is near for Bertha: After nearly 2 miles in 4 years, tunnel machine about to break through article.

Bertha's tunnel boring got behind schedule by a couple years when Bertha stalled after hitting an unexpected steel pipe.

There was never a mystery as to why Bertha's tunnel boring came to a halt. The entire debacle was openly covered in a transparent way via multiple media.

Meanwhile in Fort Worth...

Way back in 2014 construction began on the first of three simple little bridges being built over dry land, built with an astonishing four  year timeline. Longer than it took to build the Golden  Gate Bridge and other actual feats of world renowned engineering.

Construction on the only one of the three bridges to actually raise multiple V-piers above the ground has been halted for over a year, with no explanation for the construction halt. When the bridge construction was halted it was reported it would take about a month to resolve whatever the mysterious issue was which halted construction.

A paragraph from the Seattle Times article, the likes of which you likely will never see in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about anything happening in Fort Worth...

The 9,270-foot dig ranks among the trickiest megaprojects in history: Bertha was the largest drill on Earth when it entered the ground nearly four years ago, and it pushed through glacial soils that were abrasive and sloppy.

Meanwhile in Fort Worth...

If Fort Worth did have an actual newspaper doing what actual newspapers do, as in informing its readers about these things called facts and information, a paragraph from an article about America's Biggest Boondoggles' stalled bridge construction might go something like this...

The three simple little non-signature bridges rank among the simplest construction projects in public works history, with the longest project construction timeline for such a simple project, which has now been ground to a halt for over a year for reasons which no one apparently has an explanation.

On a related note, someone named Anonymous made an anonymous comment  to a blog post from a couple days ago about the Fort Worth Bridge Boondoggle, with that comment consisting of a quote which sort of makes clear what one of the problems is which has turned what should have been a relatively simple public works project into America's Biggest Boondoggle...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Overhead Look At Year's Progress Building Fort Worth Bridges Over Dry Land":

People are always asking when this project is going to start. Well, we’ve started after years and years of planning. We’ve been pregnant for a long time, now we are showing.

~J.D. Granger, executive director of the Trinity River Vision Authority, July 2008

___________________

That J.D. Granger quote is almost a decade old. In 2008 Granger is saying this project has been going on for year and years, and that now, in 2008, the project is going to be showing progress for the first time.

It is now almost ten years later. That is one super long, record breaking pregnancy. A large part of the pregnant project has been in the hospital for over a year. Apparently with the doctors unable to determine what has gone wrong with the pregnancy.

Meanwhile, only in Fort Worth, after such an inept debacle, would someone like J.D. Granger not be fired from a job for which he had zero qualifications, other than a mother who needed to  be motivated to keep her son employed by directing federal money to what, under her son, has become America's Biggest Boondoggle...

Can You Watch The Fort Worth Boondoggle's Bridges Make No Progress On Live Cam?

I know what you think you are looking at here.

J.D. Granger and one of his minions in the control room monitoring the ongoing progress of the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

Also affectionately known as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

No, that is not America's Biggest Boondoggle's control room you see here in the Trinity River Vision Authority's headquarters on the ground floor of the Boondoggle's partner in propaganda, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

America's Biggest Boondoggle has no control room where the lack of progress of that ongoing slow motion project is monitored.

Is the Boondoggle's live cam still aimed at that one and only of the Boondoggle's three simple little bridges to have sort of  reached construction mode, but halted over a year ago, due to mysterious undisclosed problems?

The control room you are looking at above is not in Fort Worth. It is underground in Seattle. That control room is part of the world's biggest tunnel boring machine, nicknamed Bertha, who is nearing the completion of her boring task.

Unlike Fort Worth, Bertha and other Seattle public works projects are totally transparent operations. When Bertha ran into a snag a couple years ago there was no cover  up, no dissembling, no hiding.

The problem and the fix were all out in the open, literally.

Such a contrast with how a backwards backwater corrupt town like Fort Worth operates.

Or does not operate.

There are multiple online locations where one can monitor the progress of Bertha and the ongoing Seattle waterfront re-build.

Fort Worth's congresswoman, Kay Granger, has dementedly propagandized that Fort Worth's pitiful Trinity River Vision is the largest urban water project in North America.

I mentioned this ridiculous Kay Granger assertion in a blog post on the day the Boondoggle had its explosive start of bridge construction ceremony way back on November 11, 2014. titled A Big Boom Begins Boondoggle Bridge Construction Three Months Late. A couple paragraphs from that blogging, one of which mentions Bertha...

Apparently Kay Granger is not at all surprised at the length of time it is taking to secure those federal dollars, because she knew it was going to take a long time because “It’s the largest urban water project in North America. It’s huge.” 

The only other urban water project currently underway in North America, which I am aware of, is Seattle's re-do of its waterfront seawall, along with replacing a section of waterfront elevated highway with a big tunnel, to the tune of several billion dollars. Already fully funded, with no unseemly begging, 

A couple years ago Bertha hit that snag, well, actually an unexpected big chunk of steel, which halted her for about a year. But, unlike the TRCCUPIV's stalled bridges, Bertha got herself fixed and back to tunneling, and is now nearing the tunnel completion point, in a much shorter time frame than the four years which was originally claimed it was going  to take for the Boondoggle to build three simple little bridges over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

There is no project timeline for Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision. There have been multiple instances of shifting estimates of the completion dates of aspects of the Boondoggle, such as within the past year J.D. Granger has been quoted saying "the project's infrastructure should be completed by 2023".

One can assume that part of that infrastructure is the three simple little bridges being built over dry land whose construction has been halted for a year.

Contrast America's Biggest Boondoggle's lack of any sort of project timeline, or project accountability, or transparency with Seattle's Bertha project. Go to WSDOT's Follow Bertha webpage where you will find all sorts of information, including the interactive project timeline graphic you see screen capped below.

Among the tidbits of info you will find on the Follow Bertha webpage you will find the following up to date stats about Bertha's progress...

UPDATED MON AND THURS
As of March 16, 2017: 556 feet remaining
Total rings built: 1,332 of 1,426
Distance traveled: 8,714 of 9,270 feet
March progress to date: 404 feet
February progress: 930 feet

It would be easy for the Trinity River Vision Boondogglers to update their bridge construction progress...

As of March 20, 2017: ZERO PROGRESS

Below is a WSDOT video tour showing multiple aspects of Bertha and the tunnel she is boring. This video is unique in that it provides a 360 degree look as you watch the video and maneuver the view via the controls at the upper left.

Now, after all this time, wouldn't you think the Trinity River Vision Boondogglers could come up with some sort of video documentation showing all the progress made in this vitally needed flood control and economic development scheme which has been dawdling along for most of this century?

You can take a Stormy Look At Zero Panther Island Bridge Motion Progress before you take the video tour of Bertha below...

Amazon's Spheres Got Me Thinking About Fort Worth's Spheres Of Boondoggles

A couples days ago I was asked if I knew the current status of the stalled bridge construction in Fort Worth.

A question about stalled Fort Worth bridge construction is referencing the three simple little bridges being built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

Fort Worth's four year bridge building project began with a big TNT bang over two years ago. Then, in March of last year, construction was halted due to supposed design errors involving re-bar.

Such is one among many reasons that that which used to be known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision is now known, far and wide, as America's Biggest  Boondoggle.

Now with federal funding to the tune of about a half billion bucks.

That's right, you who live in other areas of America, particularly those areas of America which are allowed  to vote to approve and fund public works projects, you are helping pay for Fort Worth's vitally un-needed flood control and economic development scheme which has been dawdling along for most of this century, and has never been approved by a public vote.

A couple days ago I saw something in the Seattle Times which had me freshly pondering what a backwards backwater Fort Worth is in so many ways. An article titled Amazon's Spheres: Lush nature paradise to adorn $4 billion urban campus.

Can you imagine an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram  about something in Fort Worth with two paragraphs such as....

The fruit of a bold design, the so-called Spheres will serve as a haven of carefully tended nature geared to letting Amazonians break free from their cubicles and think disruptive thoughts. It’s an internet-era, Pacific Rim answer to the architecturally astounding gardens set up by European monarchs during the Enlightenment era.

The structures are also the architectural crown jewel of Amazon’s $4 billion investment in building an urban campus, an eye-catching landmark that symbolizes the rise of what 20 years ago was a fledgling online bookstore into a global e-commerce and cloud-computing leviathan.

During my time in Texas two corporations built new corporate headquarters in downtown Fort Worth.

Tax breaks and eminent domain abuse were used for Radio Shack to build its new headquarters, which caused Fort  Worth to lose the world's shortest subway, acres of easy parking, and which became a Boondoggle when Radio Shack could not afford its new headquarters, with the Boondoggle compounded by another Fort Worth Boondoggle, that being the messed up construction of a downtown campus of Tarrant County College, with that Boondoggle eventually leading to Tarrant County College paying millions to Radio Shack to use the Radio Shack headquarters for a purpose for which it was not designed.

A college.

You reading this in modern areas of America, I am not making this stuff up. Fort Worth has to be the Boondoggle center of the known world, with Tarrant County being the eminent domain abuse center of the known world.

The other new corporate headquarters in downtown Fort Worth was the Pier One Imports building. Soon Pier One also could  not afford its new building. So, it was sold to Chesapeake Energy, from whence Chesapeake then ran its shadow government of Fort Worth during the bizarre reign of Mayor Mike Moncrief. Chesapeake Energy has since been run out of town. I don't know who own the old Pier One Imports building now.

I saw that Seattle Times article about the new Amazon campus. A $4 billion campus, built at the north end of the Seattle downtown, an area already highly developed and thought what a contrast between how such a thing happens in modern America, compared to how projects falter in Fort Worth.

I have read of no eminent  domain use, or abuse, used to acquire the property to build Amazon's buildings. I have read of no tax breaks or sweetheart deals or bribes finagled by Amazon from the Seattle government in exchange for building its new headquarters where it is being built.

If Amazon tried that type tactic, which works so well in desperate Fort Worth, Amazon would likely be told if they can't afford to build without such help, then don't built it there. Which is what Cabela's was told when it tried to shake down a Washington town. Unlike in Fort Worth, the absurd claim that Cabela's would be the number one tourist attraction in Washington was not tried, while Fort Worth bought that Top Attraction in Texas con and gave all sorts of enticements to the sporting goods store, while in Washington Cabela's was told no, if you need subsidies to open here, then don't open here.

Reading about the new Amazon campus in Seattle got me thinking about issues regarding Fort Worth other than just the Radio Shack Boondoggle.

Fort Worth's infamous Trinity River Vision debacle has been boondoggling along for most of this century. Boondoggling along with an ever shifting project timeline, the latest of which had Boondoggle Executive Director, J.D. Granger saying most of the project's infrastructure should be complete by 2023. Who knows what is meant by project infrastructure. The pitiful bridges? The ditch under the bridges?

Thinking about Fort Worth's pitifully slow, badly designed, ineptly implemented public works project got me thinking about other public works type projects I know of which have been happening during the same time frame during which Fort Worth has not managed to complete its relatively simple project.

Arlington voters approved of the building of a new Dallas Cowboys Stadium. Construction on that billion dollar plus spaceship began in 2004. If I remember right the first Super Bowl happened there in 2009, or 2010.

Way back late in the last century Dallas voters approved their own Trinity River Vision, well before Fort Worth did its copy cat thing. The Dallas Vision included three signature bridges. Fort Worth's Vision copied the three signature bridges element, then failed to deliver. Whilst Dallas has finished one of its signature bridges, with another soon to be completed, or, for all I know, is completed. I know the second bridge was well under way when last I was in Dallas.

I blogged about the Dallas bridges my one and only time driving over the completed Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in In Dallas Driving & Walking Across Impressive Signature Bridges To Trinity Groves.

During the period of time Fort Worth has been limping along with America's Biggest Boondoggle, up north, in Seattle, two major public works projects have come to be a reality. The new 520 floating bridge across Lake Washington is completed, floating and carrying traffic. Unlike Fort Worth's stalled bridges the Seattle floating bridge was built over actual water. The entire new floating bridge project cost around  $4 billion.

Seattle has another $4 billion project well underway. That being the Alaskan Way Viaduct project This involves the world's biggest tunnel boring machine, nicknamed Bertha, tunneling under downtown Seattle. Bertha is nearing completion after a major hiccup put the project about a year behind schedule.

While Bertha has been boring, other parts of the project have been underway, such as replacing the seawall along the Seattle waterfront.

Seattle projects, and public works  projects in locations other than Fort Worth, have actual project timelines, with full transparency when something goes awry, like the Bertha problem. Meanwhile, in Fort Worth, no one knows the real reasons The Boondoggle's simple little bridges have stalled.

Here is an example of how a responsible public works project's directors let the people know how their public works project is progressing, with that example being on the WSDOT Follow Bertha webpage.

How come such a webpage does not exist for Fort Worth's infamous Bridge Boondoggle? Other than the Trinity River Vision's bizarre quarterly propaganda publications which tout, four times a year, what little has actually been accomplished since The Boondoggle's last quarterly propaganda mailing.

This blogging has gone long. I was going to mention some other west coast public works projects, approved in the November election. The something like $82 billion transit bond approved by Los Angeles voters. And the $54 billion transit measure approved by Pierce, King and Snohomish county voters, those being the counties where Tacoma, Seattle and Everett are located.

Meanwhile in Fort Worth, no public vote funding the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision. But there is that almost half billion bucks that may dribble in to town over time, maybe with enough money arriving that those little bridges being built over dry land  might one day get built, along with the ditch dug to go under the bridges....

Bertha Bores While Fort Worth Bores In A Different Way

This sort of falls into the dormant category of something I read in a west coast online news source which I would not expect to be reading in the online version of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Or the print version of the Star-Telegram.

This time it is, once again, something I read in the Seattle Times.

Well, the obvious thing is that well into the foreseeable future it is unlikely any sort of transit tunnel is going to be bored under Fort Worth's tiny downtown.

While in Seattle a boring lady named Bertha is now well over the halfway mark in tunneling under downtown Seattle, part of a multi-billion dollar project to replace the Seattle waterfront's Alaskan Way Viaduct.

Meanwhile in Fort Worth there is a slow motion public works project known as America's Biggest Boondoggle, or the Trinity River Uptown Central City Panther Island District Vision.

Part of the fuzzy Fort Worth vision is three simple little bridges being built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

Only one of those Fort Worth bridges has begun being constructed, with all three originally scheduled to take four years to build. Longer than many actual complex feats of engineering.

Now I'm getting to the difference between how a public works project is covered by local media in a modern American town and how it is covered in Fort Worth.

From the time Bertha began boring the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) has kept Bertha's progress updated on its website. The Seattle Times continually reports on Bertha's progress, or lack of progress, as does other Pacific Northwest media.

When Bertha ran into an unexpected steel pipe, injuring her, causing about a year repair delay, the ongoing status was reportedly regularly in the Seattle Times and other Washington news sources. WSDOT had and has a live camera giving real time video access to the repair operation and Bertha's progress once she began boring again.

Meanwhile, in Fort Worth, I believe the one and only bridge under construction remains stalled, due to design errors. As far as I know, despite this stall being for over half a year now, the Star-Telegram has not reported on The Boondoggle's latest boondoggle, that being the little bridge not currently being built, which was supposed to take four years to build.

I believe a live cam was installed by The Boondoggle around the time the Roundabout, near the stalled bridge, was being built, along with The Boondoggle's homage to trash cans art installation.

I recollect more than one person joking that what one sees via The Boondoggle's live cam does not seem to change from day to day. As in not much happens.

I suspect with the stalled bridge project maybe the live cam has been turned off.

Then again, no one associated with The Boondoggle has ever given the slightest indication they have any realization of how embarrassingly inept has been the execution of this supposedly vitally needed flood control and economic development project.

So vitally needed that this project is being executed in ultra slow motion, going for some sort of Guinness Book of Records for Longest Construction Project in History. The Boondoggle's boondoggle has already surpassed the construction of the Panama Canal, the Taj Mahal and, well you get the drift.

Anyway, have I missed it somehow? Has anyone read anything in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about the stalled bridge construction?

Other than the initial article which said construction should resume in about a month......

Shuttling To Boring Bertha Pondering America's Biggest Boondoggle

I screen capped that which you see here from a video in the online version of the Seattle Times.

In the video a work crew rides a shuttle inside the Highway 99 tunnel being dug deep under downtown Seattle.

The crew carrying shuttle stops when it reaches the tunnel boring machine known as Bertha, with the work crew then disembarking.

I knew Bertha had made a lot of progress since she began digging again after a lengthy repair operation.

I was not aware the double decker highway is already being constructed where Bertha has already done her boring.

Native Washingtonian, Steve A, thinks the Highway 99 Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Project deserves the honor of being America's Biggest Boondoggle.

I have long respectfully disagreed with Steve A on this important subject, believing, as I have long documented, that Fort Worth's Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island Vision deserves the honor of being known as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

Yes, the Fort Worth Project is small in scope, compared to the Seattle project. And yes, the Seattle project has had some problems, and controversies.

However, the Seattle project is moving along, scheduled to be completed long before Fort Worth's currently stalled project.

The Fort Worth Boondoggle does not even have an actual project timeline.

The reasons I think Fort Worth deserves the America's Biggest Boondoggle title, instead of Seattle?

The Seattle project is fully funded, fully engineered. The Fort Worth project is not fully funded, hence the money has never been available to fully engineer the design of Fort Worth's project, hence construction problems, like Fort Worth's three simple bridges being built over dry land, have been abandoned for months, due to serious design errors.

The Seattle project is run by a qualified project engineer. The Fort Worth project is run by the unqualified son of a local congresswoman, hired to motivate his mother to secure federal funds for the under-funded project. That funding mechanism has not worked out well.

Both alleged Boondoggle's have waterfront elements. With Fort Worth's project creating a waterfront where none previously existed. Seattle's project greatly enhances the existing Seattle waterfront, tying it directly to downtown by removing the Alaskan Way Viaduct obstacle.

Another big Boondoggle difference.

In Seattle, even though the water is clean, clear and safe, there is no way the Seattle project's project engineer would engineer Rockin' the Bay Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats in Elliott Bay, because, well, that would be ridiculous and no one would participate.

While in Fort Worth, the Frat Boy who mis-engineer's Fort Worth's Boondoggle, engineers all sorts of events in the polluted waters of the Trinity River.

It's sort of a Nero fiddling while Rome burns type deal....

Bertha Will Be Done Digging Before Fort Worth's Boondoggle Bridge Ditch Is Dug

I saw that which you see here in the Seattle Times. I thought it to be interesting, the contrast between how a problem with a public works project is covered in a Seattle newspaper as compared to how the Star-Telegram covers a problem, or problems, with a local pseudo public works project.

The Highway 99 tunnel project in downtown Seattle has been stalled for about two years due to the world's biggest tunnel boring machine, named Bertha, running into some unexpected steel, causing a lot of damage to Bertha.

As you can read, via the text under the picture of the hole Bertha is in, the new tunnel was originally supposed to open this month.

If Bertha manages to bore successfully, the project timeline now has the tunnel open in  2018.

While Bertha was stalled, other parts of the approximately $4 billion project continued and are on schedule.

The Bertha problems and the ongoing fix have been reported in detail in Seattle media.

Meanwhile, in Fort Worth, there also is a stalled public works project, which used to be known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island Vision.

But is now known simply as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

Even with the delay Bertha will end up taking about four years to dig the biggest diameter tunnel ever bored.

While in Fort Worth, America's Biggest Boondoggle started construction on long delayed bridges in October of 2014, with a four year project timeline. To build three simple little bridges over dry land.

The Fort Worth bridge construction had no mechanical malfunctions to explain why it was a year after the supposed start of construction that big fanfare ensued due to bridge piers finally being under construction for one of the bridges.

Yes, you read that right. One year later only one of the Fort Worth bridges is under construction. And a big fuss was made because the wood forms for the bridge's piers could be seen.

Now, unlike the Seattle Times, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram makes no effort to explain to its few readers why this Fort Worth pseudo public works project has accomplished so little in a project which has spanned most of this century.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has not asked The Boondoggle for the real reason the bridges are being built over dry land, since it is obvious The Boondoggle's claim that the over dry land construction is a cost saving tactic is bogus. Because the reality of The Boondoggle's bridges is there will be no water under those bridges until a ditch is dug under them and water is diverted from the Trinity River.

Why does the Star-Telegram repeat The Boondoggle's propaganda about the bridge construction without questioning the obvious disinformation?

Why does the Star-Telegram not do some investigative journalism looking into the finances of The Boondoggle?

How many taxpayer dollars have been spent on the TRVA worker's salaries, including J.D. Granger's, over the course of this overly extended slow motion project? How much has the dithering added to the cost due to having to pay the people running The Boondoggle for years longer than if this had been a well executed project?

How much money has been spent on the frequent propaganda mailers sent out by The Boondoggle?

How much money has been spent on The Boondoggle's signage?

How much money has been spent on the The Boondoggle's Epstein propaganda purveyors?

How much money did The Boondoggle spend to dig the pond for the defunct Cowtown Wakepark?

If The Boondoggle was taking place in Seattle, or any other town in America with a real newspaper, you would have the answers to those questions, instead of reading the questions, unanswered, in a blog like this.

Seattle's Big Bertha Boondoggle vs. Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle

What you are looking at on the left is part of a tunnel which a machine nicknamed Bertha is boring under downtown Seattle.

Bertha came to a grinding halt a couple months ago. And then when she finally began grinding again, four feet later she overheated and stopped again.

And now Bertha has been grounded for what may be months due to problems with clogged clutter heads and a damaged main bearing seal.

Are we now at the point where this $3.1 billion project might be referred to as Seattle's Big Bertha Boondoggle?

Some are already comparing the Seattle project to Boston's notorious Big Dig Boondoggle whose original $2.8 billion dollar cost ended up being $22 billion.

The current state of Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct tunnel replacement project and its current potential boondoggle status got me comparing Seattle's Big Bertha Boondoggle to Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

I would guess that the Seattle project will fairly quickly get back on track and out of its current boondogglishness. As you can see, the Seattle tunnel project has already resulted in some impressive engineering, already having tunneled one-tenth of the tunnel's 1.7 mile distance, before Bertha stopped.

The Seattle tunnel boring only began in the last year, and already one sees more accomplished than well over a decade of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

The Seattle tunnel project addresses an actual serious problem. That being the fact that the Alaskan Way Viaduct could collapse in an earthquake, causing great loss of life. The Alaskan Way Viaduct was badly damaged by the Nisqually Earthquake, earlier this century.

The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle was originally propagandized as being a much needed flood control project, to protect downtown Fort Worth from a flooding Trinity River, by building an un-needed flood diversion channel, so that levees built over half a century ago, could be taken down.

So, unlike the Seattle tunnel project addressing fixing a real problem, the Fort Worth TRV Boondoggle addresses a non-existent problem, because downtown Fort Worth has not flooded in over a half a century, due to the protection afforded by those aforementioned levees.

The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is also an economic development project, developing a blighted area north of downtown Fort Worth with a little lake, maybe some canals, housing, restaurants, other commercial developments, plus one of the world's premiere waterfront music venues, along with this century's first drive-in movie theater and summer time's Rockin' the River Inner Tube Happy Hour Floats on the pristine Trinity River.

Seattle's Alaskan Viaduct Replacement Project also has some economic development aspects. Such as upgrading the Seattle waterfront's seawall along with taking down the Alaskan Way Viaduct, opening up an area for a new waterfront promenade.

I wonder which town's massive public works projects will be completed first? I wonder which town's massive public works project will be successful? I wonder which town's massive public works project will get national and international attention of the positive sort? I wonder which town's public works project might gain lasting fame as a classic boondoggle?

I bet you can guess what my answers to the above questions would be.

Boring Bertha Got Me Wondering Again About The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Project Schedule Timeline

This morning whilst perusing various news websites I came upon two articles which eventually had me thinking about the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

In today's Seattle Post-Intelligencer there is an article titled Seattle Tunneling Machine Digs Out Of Launch Pit.

The tunneling machine has been nicknamed Bertha, after a long ago Seattle mayor. Why? I do not know. Bertha the Mayor was way before my time on the planet. Did Bertha the Mayor like to dig?

In part the article in the P-I said.....

"Bertha," the massive tunnel boring machine, is expected to spend the next 14 months drilling a two-mile tunnel to replace the 60-year-old Alaskan Way Viaduct. The world's largest tunnel boring machine is creating a tunnel nearly 58 feet in diameter as part of the $3.1 billion project to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct, the double deck highway along the downtown Seattle waterfront.

Reading that it is going to take Bertha 14 months to bore this tunnel had me wondering what the timeline schedule is for the entire project. More on that further  down.

The other article that had me thinking about the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle was in my old hometown of Mount Vernon's online news source called Go Skagit. In part the Go Skagit article said....

MOUNT VERNON — The second phase of the downtown floodwall project, designed to revitalize Mount Vernon’s economy as well as provide better flood protection from the Skagit River, will move along this week with installation of conduit for the lighting system. The parking lot west of Main Street is still being graded, and contractors will pour sidewalk and curbing in the parking lot this week. Floodwall foundation construction will continue for the next few weeks. The project is on schedule to be done by September 2014.

So, Mount Vernon's Skagit River Vision is scheduled to be completed by next September, and is actually a needed flood control project which will result in revitalizing Mount Vernon's economy.

Back to Bertha.

Reading that Bertha had finally bored her way out of her launching pit had me wondering how long it will be before cars are using that new tunnel to get under Seattle. Googling brought me to the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) website where I saw that you can follow the progress of Bertha through multiple  stages til its completion.

At the WSDOT website I also found a Project Schedule section where I read the following and saw the project timeline you see below the text....

Schedule

The Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Program is led by WSDOT in partnership with the Federal Highway Administration, King County, the City of Seattle and the Port of Seattle. It includes more than 20 projects that will work together to reshape the SR 99 corridor.

Construction on the first project started in 2008, when crews stabilized four viaduct columns that settled following the 2001 Nisqually Earthquake. Since then, more than a dozen projects have been completed, with several more in progress or set to break ground soon. The below timeline includes major accomplishments along the road to viaduct replacement.

Since 2008 more than a dozen projects have been completed? With more in progress or ready to break ground? And from the above timeline I learn by late 2015 the new tunnel will be open for traffic.

The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle has been boondoggling for well over a decade. Has anyone seen any sort of timeline schedule of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle of the sort you see above of the Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Project?

After well over a decade of the TRV Boondoggle what do we see? The Cowtown Wakepark, the Woodshed Smokehouse, The Coyote Drive-In, an incoming ice rink, happy hour inner tube floating at a venue preposterously called Panther Island Pavilion, a lot of destruction due to eminent domain abuse and no construction of the much needed flood control project that will save Fort Worth from the flood control levees that have done their job for over a half a century.

Boondoggle.

And why is there no project schedule timeline for the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle?

Supposedly 3 bridges to nowhere will soon be being constructed over the yet to be constructed, or funded, un-needed flood diversion channel.

Boondoggle.

Oh, I already said that. Never mind.....