Excel's Coffee Shop

[excel]

Your tax $$$$$$$$$$$ going into back pockets with no accountability from contractors to mayor to governor and on and on.

But hey just keep on paying your taxes so we can STEAL your money for our back pocket deals with no explanation given.

And btw .......... We will form a committee spending 200K to figure out why we are IDIOTS!

Mayor is a lying piece of DUNG!



Seattle seawall project delayed another year, to cost $71M more
By Lindsay Cohen
Published: Sep 14, 2015 at 7:08 PM PDT



SEATTLE -- Replacing the seawall on Seattle's waterfront will take an additional year and cost $71 million more than originally projected, transportation officials said Monday.

Project leaders blamed the added time and costs in large part on a soil freeze wall, which they chose over a more traditional dewatering method. Traffic management and environmental issues also contributed to the delay.

"When you're talking about a number like $71 million dollars, there's probably not a good time to receive that news," said Scott Kubly, director of the Seattle Department of Transportation. "The only thing we can say is it is a critical public safety and a critical transportation project."

Kubly said the area most at risk for seismic activity is complete, and that project leaders hope to keep waterfront businesses open "as much as they can" while continuing their work. City leaders paid $15 million to keep those businesses closed last winter in order to speed up construction.

City councilmembers grilled project managers for details on why the project is facing another delay and increase in cost.

"At some point we thought this was going to be $10 million dollars' worth of work and now it's a lot more than that," said city councilmember Mike O'Brien, asking about the soil freeze wall.

"Why is the city incurring these additional costs as opposed to the contractor?" asked council president Tim Burgess.

"We struggle with trying to give simple answers -- and really understandable -- and trying to make this information very simple. It's just not that simple," said Jessica Murphy, one of the project leaders. "But we're going to figure out together so that we're communicating on a level plane and giving you all the information you need so there are no surprises going forward."

The $71 million will pay in part for a consultant to analyze what went wrong with the project. The $200,000 review will include a panel of national experts who will analyze the budget, design, and project management, the mayor's office said Monday.

The city hopes to pay for the additional costs through commerical parking taxes, real estate excise taxes, and the waterfront parking revenue, project leaders said Monday.

"We do recognize there was an element of surprise. Things do happen fast in this project," said Murphy. "We try to get to you as regularly as we can but there's always room for improvement."