Bend over, Encinitas. We're going to buy four of these.
A group of fundraisers that spent more than $17,000 for the North County Transit District to design a quieter train alert system for Del Mar were unpleasantly surprised last week when the expected price was nearly $200,000 higher than anticipated.
The Del Mar fundraisers are working toward installing a wayside horn train-alert system at the city’s lone Coast Boulevard crossing. They spent the money on the design phase in hopes that NCTD would return with a price lower than the $276,000 originally estimated. But the NCTD final estimate came in at $454,147, including $91,000 in administrative fees. The actual wayside horn equipment costs about $43,000, according to the estimate.
$454,147 to the government for a $43,000 horn. Ain't big government grand?
File this with the ~$5m pedestrian underpasses. There are four planned, so that's roughly $20m to let people cross from one side of the tracks to the other at four key areas. We could build forty at-grade crossings for that. Or better yet, five for half the cost of a single underpass, and they would be done in this lifetime. The city is wasting our money.
ReplyDeleteWaiting for the city officials to clean up their own act is like waiting for Santa Claus. The citizens need to pass initiatives or force greater accountability - these projects are just pocket liners for these crooks.
ReplyDeleteWill our NCTD rep Jerome Stocks gets us a better deal in Encinitas? After all his supporter John DeWald, developer of Pacific Station, will be the prime beneficiary of the wayside horns, at least at the D and E Street crossings. Will Stocks exclude the Chesterfield crossing to stick it to Teresa Barth again?
ReplyDeleteThe fleecing of America has reached epidemic proportions. This is an outright rip off! Grab your ankles and smile Encinitas.
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