URS Screw Up Costs TAXPAYERS $260,000

URS, Cap Metro and Brewster McCracken haven't got a clue,
but they sure know how to flush our money down the crapper.

This Statesman article headline, “A bridge too low costs Cap Metro $260,000” says Cap Metro (Austin's fat bus service that absorbs 1 per cent of every dollar spent in the city) will pay for the $260,000 error. But, Cap Metro is funded by us, the taxpayers. I think my headline above is more honest...don't you?

So it looks like taxpayers will pay for a design error made by the design contractor, URS - URS, who is getting paid $3.3 million for the project, screwed up with some measurements for a rail track and overpass.

URS said they will not charge for the redesign, which to me is an admission that they made the mistake.

According to the article, when asked who was to blame for the error (Capital Metro or URS) Cap Metro said that would be determined later. Later? That means we'll pay, and someone most probably gets a new boat for letting URS off the hook.

According to the article, Austin Council member and Cap Metro board member Brewster “Toller” McCracken claims he didn’t know anything about the mistake.

URS also does toll road traffic forecasting - it has one of the most disturbing records of inflating traffic forecasts in the industry. Brewster McCracken’s Toll Road study hired URS to fluff up numbers in 2006. McCracken’s failed study, which cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars, is yet another shining example of how they throw our money away.