Bridge project questionable
Anyone with half an engineering brain knows you don’t start a bridge repair project in the winter because the cost to heat the repair area will cause the project costs to skyrocket.
Why is it that when Spokane’s city engineers meet to discuss an upcoming project, the first thing they say is that they need to get a consulting engineer to run the project? Why are consulting engineers more qualified that the many highly paid engineers on city staff? What courses did the consulting engineers take that our city engineers didn’t take? We even have a position on city staff called the city bridge engineer. If this person isn’t qualified to work on bridge projects then why are they there? Why?
Is the need for consulting engineers so important? Is it because our city engineers won’t have to do the work, and that no one on city staff will be held accountable if something goes wrong? Who made the decision to go ahead with this project in the wintertime?
Will anyone be held accountable? Not likely. What usually happens is someone will get a promotion.
Rick Johnson
Retired city street inspector
Spokane