The Government Gets it right too sometimes !

This is a really rare column from The American Tune. It is in praise of Government ! I was stunned when I read that the Angels Camp bypass was completed nine months early, and under budget. This almost never happens in the world of big projects, whether funded publicly or privately. I had to add my small voice of congratulations to Caltrans, and especially the three Counties involved for not only cooperating but for actually making such a big project come to life.
My belief is that there is a small cabal of super accomplished Caltrans Project Managers out there that deserve the lion’s share of the applause. Managing a massive multi year project such as this is anything but straightforward. You have not only government red tape to cut through, but landowners who change their mind on the right of way and on the terms of land acquisition deals mid stream. Add to that a host of environmental busybodies, OSHA regulators and scads of other regulatory commissions all silently stalking the Projects’ Success.
Consider the effect of one change in design. Let’s take that part of the highway extension that goes across Murphy’s grade road and over the meadow east of the High School. Suppose the engineers realize the cross winds are stronger than originally thought in the planning process. They set their field laptops a whirring and determine that they need a higher grade steel for the supports, and the rock content of the concrete needs to be changed. The ripple effect changes the entire timeline of the project, causing re-scheduling of dozens of critical path activities; causing lots of delays and possible hair loss for the project managers. You can add a month or two of extra effort easily when engineering changes appear. And appear they do on these projects.
Then imagine if the Sierra Muerte Club “finds” an endangered millipede or discovers the possible habitat of the spotted darter snail-owl. Ouch ! Mysterious beings in tie-dye t-shirts carefully hidden under official looking jackets start hanging around the project office. Yes Martha – you can stop a CAT D9 dozer with a 120 pound bearded Bolshevik from the environmental movement. New studies need to be ordered, the entire project may be suspended. Hundreds of sub contractors that have scheduled time, material and personnel to work on the project are put in limbo awaiting the outcome of a study by parties indifferent to the project timeline, and cost.
Then consider the byzantine nature of the funding for this Highway extension. Three Counties with varying degrees of financial difficulties of their own had to pony up large amounts of highway funds that could have easily been re-cycled on other roads projects. Enormous amounts of cash needed to complete the project is supposed to be coming from Sacramento. Yes, that Sacramento. The one where the State overshot a $120 billion budget by a mere $40 billion. I can imagine the Project managers anxiously firing off vouchers to get cash in from Sacramento, and hearing – hey, what’s with the long face ? We got truckloads of IOU’s we can send your way !
In my little world of funding and building software companies it’s like finding out your Venture Capitalist was actually Bernie Madoff, a week before payroll is due.
Big construction projects are often notoriously under funded and the time estimates are laughably short, as a way of getting the thing sold to the investors and local community. This was not the case here. The folks that put together this project plan did a really outstanding job of looking through a murky veil of time and cost estimates to assemble a very plausible plan. I’m sure this project had the usual bit of padding in time and cost, but that is normal as an offset against the scads of unknown problems that are bound to appear like ghostly apparitions during the project rollout. Whoever did the estimates on project cost and time had to be really good at their work.
Likewise the project managers that deal with taming time and matter unknown have to be singled out as heroes of the community. I have to believe they are now in high demand for the management of dozens of other “shovel ready” projects still looming out in the ether. Please let these folks run those projects, and not the jokers from Washington.
Here’s to a fantastic accomplishment in really difficult times. Yes, the Caltrans folks and everyone associated with this project deserves a big round of applause. Bringing in a huge project such as this, under time and under budget is something to applaud, even for us Conservatives.