By Juan Montoya
Don't look now, but out at the Brownsville Navigation's District (AKA the Golden Ditch) there is another boondoggle in the making.
At tomorrow's 5:30 p.m. meeting at the port, commissioners will be asked to approve a request from Port Engineer Ariel Chavez to enter into a Task Order Agreement with HDR-Shiner Moseley Engineering for a Redesign and Bid and Award Agreement for the elusive Cargo Dock 16.
A Freedom of Information request by El Rrun-Rrun has revealed that the Port of Brownsville has already doled out more than $2.124 million to the Houston (and Corpus Christi) engineering firm for work on the future Dock 16 and has nothing to show but bare dirt for it.
How much this new "task-order" agreement is worth is not specified on the agenda. But if the past history of the firm's fiscal relationship with the port is any indication, it will be a sweet deal for the Houston engineering firm.
Dock 16 has been a project that has been in the making for years. Throughout that time, the costs for the engineering work have climbed steadily. But unless you know where to look, you will find nothing there but barren real estate at the side of the ship channel.Incidentally, right next to the future Dock 16 is located the finished Dock 15. The engineering work for that project (not construction, mind you) also went to Shiner-Mosely. That time, however, the company was lenient on the port. They only charged $1.32 million for the engineering on that one.
Now, one many ask, why is it that engineering studies on the soil, compaction, etc. need to be done again seeing how the site is right next to Dock 15, which the port has already paid for? Isn't that a bit redundant, like paying twice (at double the price, apparently) for the same work?
Port commissioners sitting on this board need to ask whether the amounts paid to this company are really justified before they start climbing beyond what is reasonable and fair. And while they're at it, don't local companies exist in the Rio Grande Valley (or Brownsville, for that matter) that are just as capable of performing the same work?
We have seen the fine example of this company's work. They, after all, charged the port $97,872 to prepare the application for the TIGER 1 application that was seeking some $60 million from the federal government. The result of that "small" investment? Zilch, nada, nothing.
We know that the port administration like CEO Eddie Campirano and some of the commissioners have enjoyed the largess of the company on sumptuous fishing trips at the firm's expense.
But shouldn't the port administration and the sitting board also justify the spiraling costs associated with Dock 16 before we end up with the same embarrassing questions they had to answer with the $21 million bridge that never got built?
John Reed, Ralph Cowen, Martin Arambula, Carlos Masso, and Tito Lopez, where are you?
4 comments:
It has to be built now, since they can't steal the money this time around? There is too much publicity and Armando Villalobos can't stall or start an investigation into it.
The Port of Brownsville or BND should stop taking taxes from the public and operate as a business. Their problem, like BISD and other local governments, is that they can't balance a budget without money from taxes and they waste too much money...."The bridge to nowhere" and now this new "project to nowhere".
they are not going to hire dannenbaum engineering once again to help them with this project? and why not?
you wanna see a boondoggle? Go to the drainage district on old port isabel road and look at the massive park that they are constructing with drainage tax dollars. go see the 100 foot metal monstrosity tower that is supposed to become a waterfall. but hold your nose, because that property is across the street from the robindale stink plant and if the wind is blowing from the southeast, you will smell the toilets of half of brownsville.
where are the bloggers on this one? meanwhile today, streets are flooded all over town! as the drainage district signs say, 'your tax dolllars at work'!
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