[OKC] FW: [passrailok] Amusing Highway Contrator Complaint...

Tue Sep 8 06:06:19 PDT 2009

From: passrailok at yahoogroups.com [mailto:passrailok at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of sfrr at aol.com
Sent: Monday, September 07, 2009 7:04 PM
To: heartland_flyer at yahoogroups.com; Southwest_Chief at yahoogroups.com; MOKSRail at yahoogroups.com; passrailok at yahoogroups.com; centralpassengerrail at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [passrailok] Amusing Highway Contrator Complaint...

http://djcoregon.com/news/2009/09/02/contractors-want-roads-not-trains/

Contractors want roads, not trains

POSTED: Wednesday, September 2, 2009 at 01:32 PM PT
BY: Justin Carinci 
Tags: Amtrak <http://djcoregon.com/news/tag/amtrak/> , federal stimulus <http://djcoregon.com/news/tag/federal-stimulus/> , NUCA <http://djcoregon.com/news/tag/nuca/> , ODOT <http://djcoregon.com/news/tag/odot/> 

Contractors are criticizing a decision to spend savings from Oregon’s federal stimulus projects to buy passenger trains. Money saved on road projects should be pumped back into road projects, four contractor groups wrote in a letter to the Oregon Transportation Commission.

The commission approved the purchase of two trains, for $35 million, to run on the Amtrak Cascades line between Portland and Eugene. That made up the bulk of the nearly $43 million left over from what the state planned to spend on transportation stimulus projects.

Because the savings came from contractors bidding below estimates on road projects, the money should be spent on more such projects, said Melinda Dailey, executive director of the National Utility Contractors Association of Oregon and Southwest Washington. Dailey and the heads of the Asphalt Pavement Association of Oregon and the local chapters of the Associated General Contractors and Associated Builders and Contractors signed the letter.

“What I found most disheartening was that they’re going to take (away) that $43 million surplus that came about because all these companies are doing whatever it takes to stay open, cutting to the bone and underbidding on projects,” Dailey said.

“That argument doesn’t hold any water,” Oregon Department of Transportation spokesman Patrick Cooney responded. The state is getting the projects it paid for, Cooney said, but has no obligation to spend money left over on similar projects.

“If you need to buy a new refrigerator, and find out all the refrigerators are 25 percent less than what you thought you would spend, are you required to spend the savings on another refrigerator?” Cooney said. “Or would you buy a new washer, if that’s what you need?”

In that example, Oregon’s new washer is a train. The state now uses a train owned by Washington state on the Cascades line between Portland and Eugene. Washington rail officials plan to use that train to run another round trip between Seattle and Portland, said Andrew Wood, deputy director of the state’s rail and marine division.

“When that happens, in a couple years, we wouldn’t have a train set just sitting there in Portland that runs to Eugene and back,” Wood said.

“If we want to run one on the more profitable (Seattle-to-Portland) route, that capability wouldn’t exist.”

Oregon hasn’t bought the new trains yet. “There’s not a whole lot of trains sitting out there to be purchased,” Cooney said.

But buying new trains serves a dual purpose, he said: continuing the Portland-to-Eugene route and demonstrating a commitment to rail that will boost the state’s chances to win $2.1 billion in federal rail grants. “The federal government is looking to the states for that level of thinking,” Cooney said. “You don’t do nothing and come to the federal government with your hand out.”

ODOT’s decision rankled Dailey. “Instead of putting this into other projects, they’re putting it toward a speculative venture, trying to attract $2 billion in stimulus money that may or may not happen,” she said. “These companies are on the verge of dying on the vine right now and need that money to stay alive.

“We’re more concerned with what’s happening right now than what’s possibly happening down the road,” she said.

Roughly $5.8 million of the $43 million savings will go to expand current road projects, Cooney said. Another $2 million will go to expand the state’s “solar highw ay” array along Interstates 5 and 205.

The unanticipated money provided an opportunity to address a pressing need, Cooney said. And just because buying trains doesn’t require construction jobs, it doesn’t mean the purchase won’t bring jobs to Oregon, he said.

“The trains don’t operate themselves,” Cooney said.  “You need people to operate and maintain the trains after the purchase, to conduct daily operations, and to keep the line safe and operating.”

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