Stunner: WADOT "grossly mismanaged taxpayer funds." I-5 Bridge/Loot Rail next.

.
Here's another look at our future if the Bridger/Looter project ever gets built.

Hot off the presses at the TNT.

Audit finds state Transportation Department grossly mismanaged taxpayer funds

Posted By Katie Schmidt on January 18, 2011 at 1:22 pm Share this

State Transportation Department mismanagement caused a “gross waste of public
funds” in a road widening project on State Route 18 near Maple Valley, according to an audit released Tuesday.

The project, which was completed in 2007, suffered from design mistakes, payroll mix-ups and environmental violations, leading to $42.5 million in cost overruns and pledges on the part of Transportation Department officials to manage things differently.

“This was a case where we fully recognized that we had problems with the project,” said Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond of the auditor’s investigation into the project. “This wasn’t new news for us.”

Hammond said the department completed its own investigation of the State Route 18 project in 2004, the same year that the Army Corps of Engineers shut down work in the area because the contractor had been stockpiling debris in the surrounding wetlands.

Jeff Carpenter, a WSDOT construction engineer, said the 2004 investigation did not include reporting on cost overruns because the project was not finished at that point. He said information on the cost of the project was included in the department’s quarterly and annual reports.

The audit came about because of a whistleblower report, submitted under the state’s Whistleblower Act, about mismanagement by the WSDOT during the project.

All together, the project, bid at $55.9 million, cost taxpayers $98.4 million. Change orders, most of which resulted from design errors and environmental violations, cost $16.4 million and the department was fined over $180,000 for breaking environmental rules, including the Clean Water Act.

Much More:

Just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside that if our own local crap pile gets built, these same clowns won't stiff us with billions in overruns. $42 million in overruns in what was supposed to be a $56 million project.

Gotta wonder... who got fired over that? Who got sued? How did we recover these taxpayer dollars?

What's that?

We DIDN'T recover that money?

Wow.

Am I surprised... or what?
.