Skip to main content

Sign Error may delay I-485's opening in Charlotte

Hard to belive that I have yet to do any commentary on my second home of North Carolina and their transport issues until today.

From today's Charlotte Observer:

The opening of a little over two miles of I-485 in Northwest Mecklenburg County may be delayed because the steel structures that support overhead signs have yet to be constructed. The structures, which the overall design was approved by the state in May, are now being delayed by the steel fabricator who wants an additional $86,000 on top of the $242,000 budgetted by the state for them.

The delay could last anywhere from two weeks to three months, and no solution has been determined.

Commentary:

It looks like a game of "Not My Fault/Not My Job" is going on between NCDOT and McWhirther Grading. John Parker, who is the NCDOT engineer overseeing the I-485 project, claims that the state approved the designs in May, and the DOT did their part. Ken Stayley with McWhirther says that the state did not provide the specs for constructing the structures. Parker says it wasn't the state's responsibility.

So will someone please own up to what was wrong, come to a solution and move forward?!?! Better yet just say ok there was an error somewhere lets stop pointing fingers and fix it?!?!?! The comments by readers of this article in the Charlotte Observer were very hostile and cynical.

Also, throw in the fabricator for wanting another $86,000 (on top of $242,000) to create the structures. Parker doesn't feel it is the state's responsibility to pay the extra money. Nor does he think taxpayer money should go to it.

Well a lot of "not my faults" from the NCDOT, the contractor, and an un-named fabricator wanting more money. Residents say they don't need signs for two miles of road, they can figure it out on their own.

Stay tuned....

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Tale of Tollhouse Road, western California State Route 168 and failed Piute Pass Highway

Western California State Route 168 is entirely located in Fresno County and is linked historically to the Tollhouse Road corridor.   Tollhouse Road is one of the oldest highways in the Sierra Nevada range of Fresno County. The corridor presently begins in at Clovis Avenue in downtown Clovis and extends northeast to Huntington Lake. In 1866 the Woods Brothers established mining claims on Pine Ridge. In 1867 Fresno County would grant the brothers a toll franchise to construct a roadway to the desirable logging areas atop Pine Ridge and near Dinkey Creek. The Woods would establish a tollhouse at the start of their franchise road and lumber mill. The lumber mill attracted settlers which led to the establishment of the mountain town of Tollhouse. Fresno County would purchase the Tollhouse Road in 1878 and make it a public highway. The county would remove the tolls and incorporate the corridor into the existing county road network. Prior to the establishment of Clovis in 1...

Old Dunlap Road (former California State Route 180 in Yokuts Valley)

When California State Route 180 was commissioned in August 1934 the alignment in took in Sierra Nevada range was very different than from today.  The original highway alignment from Squaw Valley (now Yokuts Valley) to east Grant Grove (then part of General Grant National Park) originally followed what is now Ruth Hill Road, Dunlap Road, Pinehurst Road (modern California State Route 245), Dark Canyon Road (partially now Forest Road 14S45).  After funding fell through for the planned Kings Canyon Road the was corridor eventually picked up as a 30-mile-long cooperative project between the Division of Highways and Federal Government.  Much of current alignment of California State Route 180 bypassing Squaw Valley (now Yokuts Valley) and Dunlap was complete by 1941.  The post-1941 alignment of California State Route 180 in Squaw Valley was shifted onto what was once Dunlap Road in Squaw Valley.  This alignment itself was later bypassed by modern California State Route...

Nostalgia fast food with style - Returning to Rax

Nostalgia. It sells. It evokes, and more accurately, warps memories of days gone by.  Things were better, simpler, and we eat it up. Nostalgia can make you drive three hours and over a hundred miles out of your way just to reconnect with a dying fast-food restaurant you last enjoyed in the early to mid-90s.  That person was me - that restaurant was Rax. I could go on about Rax's history, but in short, Rax was briefly a very popular roast beef fast-food chain.  Growing up in the 80s and early 90s in Western PA, Rax was the good fast-food spot.  The milkshakes.  (Personally, the chocolate chip milkshake was heaven.)  Uncle Alligator Kids Meal with the chocolate chip cookie. Take that McDonald's Happy Meal!  The fancy salad and hot foods bar.  Going to Rax was special.  Like so many similar restaurants, various investments, management decisions, etc., led Rax to almost disappear overnight.  By the time I graduated college in late 1999, abou...