« MONO | Main | What's on TV? »
Dare I Say It (Again)?
September 28, 2005
I told you so, AGAIN!
Not only have Hollanders wasted over a million dollars in private donations forcing the addition of the temporary bridge, but now the temporary bridge is delayed by lack of permits.
Furthermore, rumors are going around that BPW and Holland Township cannot find the main sanitary sewer forcemain underneath the river - therefore, the contractor will not commit to building the temporary or permanent bridge. All of Holland Township and Park Township’s sewer-serviced areas collect into three forcemains that flow under the Macatawa River and into the Holland Area Wastewater Treatment Plant. Puncturing one or all of these mains would cause a massive sewage overflow into Lake Macatawa, and would also disrupt sewer service to thousands of people. No small thing, that’s for sure.
I’m sure that they’ll determine where the forcemains are, but at this time, it’s just another example of the horrible work that’s gone into the bridge design and implementation.
What does it all mean? Well, after permits are granted and designs completed, it is very likely that the temporary bridge won’t be completed until next summer - 2006. (Local officials seem to think it can still be done by year’s end. HA!) Then, it will take another 6 to 8 months to build the permanent bridge. I’d be willing to bet that the whole project will not be completed until 2007. That’s TWO YEARS behind schedule. A schedule that was destroyed because local officials bowed to a few power-hungry local residents, bent on wasting money that could have been donated elsewhere, all in the name of “jobs” - they feared that closing the bridge for a summer would cause job loss. Ugh! Instead, it caused the project to go over by a couple years, and caused the project cost to increase by over $2 million!
I told you so - a year ago today (and the week before that)!
Old posts about this:
April 17, 2005
February 13, 2005
September 28, 2004
September 15, 2004
Posted by paul at September 28, 2005 12:12 PM
Comments
Brian said on September 28, 2005 05:12 PMJenn and I walked Window on the Waterfront a few weeks back (my first time there) and it seemed really well kept, and has potential to be a great area for people. However, it seems that the both the city and its citizens have forgotten about it (although freedom village and local mexican soccer players do take advantage of its facilities).
Pretty sad, I kind of liked it too.