Marquette Interchange: DOT tracking steel prices

Also on this page: Courthouse annex, "pit parking" to go? Fixing roads provides more jobs than building them, study says. $25,000 per meeting "typical," DOT says.

April 19 -- The Wisconsin Department of Transportation is keeping an eye on the skyrocketing cost of steel, but how those rising prices will affect the Marquette Interchange reconstruction project is not yet known, according to a DOT official.

Gov. Doyle has promised to keep the cost of the Interchange under $810 million, but if steel price trends continue, that promise will be difficult to keep.

Steel will be a major component of the new Interchange.

A representative of the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) told the U.S. House of Representatives last month that the price of steel used in highways and bridges jumped 30% to 80% since the end of last year.

“Price changes are one of the risks we take to be in this business,” said Pat Loftus, who was representing the American Road & Transportation Builders Association’s Materials & Services Division. “The steel price increases of recent months, however, were far outside normal fluctuations, were totally unexpected and will have a very disruptive impact on individual highway and bridge construction projects in the very near future. The convergence of these factors has resulted in a ‘Perfect Storm’.”

WisDOT spokeswoman Pat Schmitt said that industry analysts "are predicting that the price will continue to rise in the short term and stabilize at lower levels later in the year. Current indicators suggest that the price will stabilize at a higher level than historical prices, but no one has a good prediction of what that level will be."

Schmitt said major steel-related contracts for the Marquette won't be let until July and August of 2005.

"It is too early to estimate what impact the steel prices may have on the total project," she wrote. "The Department is monitoring the price situation and will make adjustments as needed to deal with steel prices."

Courthouse annex, "pit" parking
to go?
600 Downtown spaces at risk

April 4 -- As many as 600 Downtown parking spaces could be lost due to the Marquette Interchange reconstruction and concerns about possible terrorist attacks, according to County Supervisor Lynne DeBruin.

The Courthouse annex, which bridges I-43, may have to be taken down for the Marquette project, she said. And county officials do not know when -- if ever -- the federal government will allow drivers to park under the Interchange after the project is finished.

"There apparently is quit a bit of concern that we could lose both," she said.

Rumors were circulating in the courthouse that the Department of Homeland Security would prohibit parking under the new Interchange because of concerns that terrorists would park bomb-laden cars there to blow up the freeway crossroads.

"The rumor you heard is potentially true," DeBruin said.

Jurors and county workers park under the freeway in an area known as the "pit." The county already is beginning to prohibit parking in some spaces there because of the reconstruction project.

The lot, with about 200 spaces, likely will be completely closed by January for the duration of the reconstruction effort, DeBruin said. It probably won't be known for a few years if the feds will allow parking to resume there.

DeBruin

In addition, she said, "the entire annex may not be able to withstand the construction so close to its own piling system. "The annex may have to be torn down."

Marquette Interchange plans call for the State Department of Transportation to acquire 2,575 square feet of annex property for new freeway right-of-way, according to DOT documents. The Interchange plans did not include tearing down the structure.

The Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, however, anticipated the annex would have to be torn down if freeways are widened, as the commission is recommending. SEWRPC said the value of the annex was about $15.7 million in 2000 dollars.

Fixing roads provides more jobs than building them, study says

April 4 -- Maintaining and repairing roads creates more new jobs than expanding or building roads does, according to a new report.

"Fix it first" projects, such as resurfacing, rehabilitating, or replacing bridges and roads creates just over 47,0000 jobs for every $1.25 billion spent.

Spending $1.25 billion on building new roads creates 43,200 jobs, according to the Surface Transportation Policy Project.

"An interesting finding of STPP's analysis...is that 'environment-related' transportation projects, which include wetland mitigation, noise barrier construction, and air quality programs, generate the highest number of jobs," the organization said in a summary of its findings.

Environmental projects create 51,200 jobs for every $1.25 billion spent. Safety projects create 48,300 jobs per $1.25 billion spent.

"Investments in public transportation produce almost nine percent more jobs per dollar spent than road and bridge repair and maintenance projects, and nearly 19 percent more jobs than new road or bridge projects," STPP said.

Environmental projects create 51,300 new jobs for every $1.25 billion spent.

STPP is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization funded by individual donations and a range of national and regional foundations including Agua Foundation, the Fannie Mae Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Heinz Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, the Kirsch Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the McKenna Foundation, the David & Lucille Packard Foundation, the William Penn Foundation, the Pittsburgh Foundation, the Prince Charitable Trust, the Rausch Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Surdna Foundation.

$25,000 payments for meeting "typical," DOT says

March 20 -- The $25,000 that DOT offered to pay consultants to prepare and a attend a single public information is "typical," according to DOT secretary Frank Busalacchi.

The webteam reported recently that CH2M Hill and HNTB, consultants on the Marquette Interchange project, were to be paid about $26,000 for helping to prepare for and attending a single public information meeting.

"While this figure may seem high, the effort involves a great many activities, including creating and distributing newsletters, placing advertisements in newspapers, and preparing handout materials," Busalacchi wrote in a letter to Ald. Michael J. Murphy.

Busalacchi was responding to Murphy's inquiry about the fee.

CHM2 Hill, at the time the no-bid main contractor for Marquette Interchange design study, was offered $10,946.28 to participate in a fourth public informational meeting, according to a 2002 contract amendment obtained by the webteam through an open records request.

HNTB, then a subcontractor to CH2M Hill, was to be paid $15,852.64 to help prepare and conduct the public information session.

The written offer that DOT extended did not include any specific tasks the firms were to perform for the money.

Busalacchi said in his letter that costs associated with public meetings "can be significant."

"For example, we plan to mail nearly 6,000 postcards to promte the upcoming March 24th public information meeting on the Marquette Interchange project," he wrote. "Advertising alone can be expensive. It costs about $1,000 to place a single weekday ad in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. We also place advertisements in minority and neighborhood newspapers."

Busalacchi did not say in his letter whether funding for those types of things was to come from the CH2M Hill or HNTB payments.

"In addition to these costs, there is the cost of consultant time to prepare for and staff the public meeting," he wrote. "Several consultant staff are usually available to the public during a public information meeting to help answer questions and address concerns."

The amount CH2M Hill was to receive for attending the hearing was enough to pay for more than 109 hours -- 13.7 work days -- of labor by people earning $100 an hour.

"There may also be costs for equipment, translators, parking or other accommodations at the meeting site," Busalacchi wrote.

At the time the $26,000 offer was made, DOT the public meeting it referred to was unscheduled and the ancillary costs unknown.

"One final note," Busalacchi wrote, "the costs for the public information meeting you referred to were estimates IF a fourth public meeting would was authorized under the consultant. This option was not authorized and the funds will not be expended."

Contrary to Busalacchi's statement, the amounts in the contract are clearly not estimates.

The webteam has asked DOT how much its consultants will be paid for the March 24 public information meeting.

Meeting details, as outlined on the DOT's Marquette Interchange web site, can be found below.

When:
March 24, 2004
3 to 8 p.m.
Formal presentation at 5:30 p.m.

Where:
Milwaukee County War Memorial
750 N. Lincoln Memorial Drive
Milwaukee, WI 53202

Parking is available on the street
and in the parking structure west
of the building.

Topics to be discussed include:
• Clybourn Street advanced work
• General information brochure
• DBE information