Uh oh. Supe is getting into

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1110490819.gif

mode...

(disclaimer)
Okay, Supe, I'll take your bait, but only because I was gonna post this anyway...btw, this is the first time all day that I've been called a cretin...:D
(end of disclaimer)

See? Here's proof to my earlier point. If this jackass had to pay use tax, he probably wouldn't be facing up to 5 years in jail. SHEESH! :eek:

Randy

This is a doozy - the BQE, rather the Brooklyn Queens Expressway is jammed up with construction for 2 years. An elevated highway, one of the first and showing its age. Opposite Manhattan with more traffic than most interstates...

So, they get tear this road apart - then realise that they cannot get the American made steel they need to use by law in order to rebuild it. Duhhh!!! The last foundry making what they need has been shut years ago..

So then all the engineering needs to be re-done so smaller beams and joists (made in the USA) can then be sourced and fitted! Only only about 100 man-years in taxpayer life wasted in traffic and tie-ups during this debacle.

gumint may have a role, but they aint doing a good job!

Amen, g-man. Those are some of the very roads that I've got to endure; and the BQE was in my top 5 reasons to move out of Brooklyn.

But once you're out of the 5 boroughs, the roads are pretty good, given what they've got to put up with. Even the LIE (I can't believe I'm writing this) is in pretty good shape, it's just saturated w/ too many people.

JP

i feel your pain and i hear your arguement. i think the average time it takes for some engineer to go, "hmm, i think i should build this". to the first shovelfull of dirt is 10 years. effen lame. but with all the traffic studies and right of way issues, yada yada yada. it probably takes that long. problem is that in 10 years, a whole lotta life has already happened. like your steel mill, or that damn BUY AMERICA act. i promise, once they finish that project, it will already be outdated, especially in terms of capacity.

A conservative Republican legislator in my state is proposing a one cent per year gas tax hike for the next twenty years. Again, as I say, there is no debate in my legislature about whether we have a transportation crisis or not, and we have some VERY conservative legislators. The problem is throttling commerce (and peoples' lives also, which of course is just a minor, secondary consideration). Anyway, one of the local crack-pipe conservative think tanks is of course opposing this by whining about the compexity of these projects, and the time they take in planning, permitting etc.

So, above I notice some whining about that kind of stuff, but not really the same as the think tank whiners. I agree that it would be ideal if barriers could be overcome quickly. But I also know (and Vash knows) that these project do require substantial planning. Trust me, you would not want these projects going forward without adequate planning. When they do, even more eggregious mistakes are made. The think tank said, as if this is inappropriate, that the planning and permitting takes longer than the actual construction work. Being an insider, I was thinking "Yeah......and your point is.....?" Seriously. Vash. It simply does take time. On my project, an airport modernization, our poor contractors and engineers have at least three security agencies breathing down their neck, they've got planes loaded with humans and kerosene taxiing around heavy construction equipment, several local municipalites are impacted plus the State Patrol, Department of Ecology, yadda yadda. Again, if someone thinks we should cut some of these entities out of our discussions, then I'd like to hear who we should be ignoring.

Okay, at any rate, there is the steel sourcing matter above, related to the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. It is important to some people to keep American manufacturing jobs here. Or at least to NOT use public funds to help move contracts, and jobs, and whole employers outside the US. So, this requirement kinda makes sense. But steel prices have gone THROUGH THE ROOF. And y'know why? China. China is launching into an infrastructure investment craze that is taxing the world's supply of resources.

And some of my brilliant conservative instructors here seem to have the opinion that infrastructure is not that important. Someone should tell China this, before they waste more money.