Hypocrisy of the CRC Scamming Benton-bashers.

Boy, howdy: arethe CRC Scamming Benton-Bashers doing that rank hypocrisy thing.... or what?

The Brancaccio-led fringe-leftists are flipping out in their hatred... so much so that when yet ANOTHER story of CRC Scammer incompetence surfaces, why, they've got no time to express outrage about THAT.

Hell, no... not when there's partisan hatred and bile to spew..

$3M CRC error led to wrong cost estimate

Figure related to future operating cost of light-rail submitted to agency

Columbian files

The Columbia River Crossing says an error of more than $3 million was the reason project officials gave the Federal Transit Administration an inaccurate operating cost estimate for at least two years.

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By Eric Florip
Columbian Staff Reporter

Thursday, May 2, 2013

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The Columbia River Crossing says an error of more than $3 million was the reason project officials gave the Federal Transit Administration an inaccurate operating cost estimate for at least two years.

When the CRC provided its most recent financial summary to the FTA as part of a grant application process, it listed the project's annual future operating cost related to light rail at $12.81 million as of November 2012. That appeared to be a significant jump from the 2011 figure provided to FTA, which was $8.35 million.

But a CRC representative said this week that the 2011 number was given in error, and should have been reported as $11.6 million. The same mistake also led to an inaccurate number in 2010, according to the project.

So what happened? "The wrong cell in the spreadsheet was selected for the report," CRC spokeswoman Mandy Putney said in an email. The most recent figure is correct, and the earlier mistakes weren't repeated elsewhere, she said.

Each of those figures, revised yearly, refer to the predicted operating cost of light rail in 2030. The number has grown due to inflation and an uptick in expected maintenance costs, Putney said.

Kris Strickler, the CRC's Oregon project director, has said the change won't affect how tolling is implemented on the proposed Interstate 5 Bridge replacement. The $3.4 billion project would also extend light rail into Vancouver, and rebuild freeway interchanges on both sides of the Columbia River.

The CRC has regularly submitted information to the FTA in recent years with hopes of applying for a federal New Starts grant. That's the program CRC leaders are banking on to pay as much as $850 million toward building the light-rail component of the project. But several other funding pieces must first fall into place before that happens.

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Yup: Just another sign of the CRC Scammers not interested in their guy's screw ups when there's red meat they can beat on.