When Charles County started the Rosewick Road project, the budget for Phase 2 was supposed to total $5.7 million dollars. Add an extra $432,000 to that, and don't forget that the project was due for completion in April of LAST YEAR. They are estimating that April of 2009 will be the targeted completion date with the unanticipated cost overruns.
The County is pouring TONS of cash into this project, essentially robbing Peter to pay Paul ($282K came from the upcoming Phase 3 Budget, and 150K came from the Western Parkway Upgrade budget, Sorry Guys!) Don't forget that Capital Services is anticipating further cash injections in order to get the work done, while the Commissioners are "hoping" that Phase 3 comes in under budget.
In all honesty, if Phase 2 has been such a financial mess, what leads people to believe that Phase 3 will be any better? The Phase 3 budget is currently $5.9 Million (Minus that pesky $282k, naturally), and construction costs are rising with inflation. Anyone else see a problem here?
I agree that the Roadway needs to be improved, but how much of this is for the County's current benefit, and how much of this work is being done for the benefit of upcoming developers' projects?
I would say that it is not unnatural for some buildings projects to get delayed. As a Vancouver realtor I've seen a lot of estimated dates of completition go by. Sometimes there are certain obstructions that forestall a completition of a project. The funny thing is, that this happens mostly with public projects. I thinks that a private investor makes highest efforts in preventing failures. But with public projects it takes a whole bunch of bureaucrats to to find a solution to a problem (not saying solve it). And tax payers can only wonder how much money there actually is to vaste.
Posted by: Vancouver realtor | July 24, 2008 at 05:25 AM