Infrastructure

How's infrastructure?

Do we need money to build or fix a school? That fire station? That police station? Your town hall?

Don't bother the Feds. They'll tell you to suck a lemon.

But if you're in Afghanistan then cost is no object. They have a new $43 million dollar two pump natural gas station courtesy of you and me, the US taxpayer.

A U.S.-built compressed natural-gas station in northern Afghanistan cost $43 million to build, and there’s no one around anymore to explain how the station came to cost so much, a government watchdog has said.

The money came from the Task Force for Business and Stability Operations, which was originally created by the Defense Department to help revive post-invasion Iraq. The task force was redirected to Afghanistan in 2009. Congress appropriated about $822 million between 2010 and 2014 to the effort.

It was unclear if the gas station is still operating or if it ever operated. According to Afghan documents SIGAR obtained, the business license of Qashqari Oil and Gas Services, the firm that was to operate the gas station, expired in November 2014 and has not been renewed.

Moreover, it appears that converting gasoline-powered cars to run on compressed
natural gas may be out of reach for all but very few Afghans, SIGAR
said. It costs about $700 to do the conversion, while the average annual income in Afghanistan is $690, the report said, citing World Bank figures.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-burns-43-million-to-build-gas-station-in-afghanistan-2015-11-02

Depressing. The bs never ends.

To be fair, we need to make good on our contracts.

Maybe Obama can take NJT or one of the crippled bridges/tunnels from Newark to his fundraisers in NYC tonight and see how we have neglected these critical arteries over the years.

Obama was on the roads tonight. I'd rather see Christie give up his helicopter.

Nevets said:
Maybe Obama can take NJT or one of the crippled bridges/tunnels from Newark to his fundraisers in NYC tonight and see how we have neglected these critical arteries over the years.

Are you seriously blaming Obama for infrastructure neglect?

BG9 said:
How's infrastructure?
Do we need money to build or fix a school? That fire station? That police station? Your town hall?
Don't bother the Feds. They'll tell you to suck a lemon.
But if you're in Afghanistan then cost is no object. They have a new $43 million dollar two pump natural gas station courtesy of you and me, the US taxpayer.

A U.S.-built compressed natural-gas station in northern Afghanistan cost $43 million to build, and there’s no one around anymore to explain how the station came to cost so much, a government watchdog has said.

The money came from the Task Force for Business and Stability Operations, which was originally created by the Defense Department to help revive post-invasion Iraq. The task force was redirected to Afghanistan in 2009. Congress appropriated about $822 million between 2010 and 2014 to the effort.

It was unclear if the gas station is still operating or if it ever operated. According to Afghan documents SIGAR obtained, the business license of Qashqari Oil and Gas Services, the firm that was to operate the gas station, expired in November 2014 and has not been renewed.

Moreover, it appears that converting gasoline-powered cars to run on compressed
natural gas may be out of reach for all but very few Afghans, SIGAR
said. It costs about $700 to do the conversion, while the average annual income in Afghanistan is $690, the report said, citing World Bank figures.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-burns-43-million-to-build-gas-station-in-afghanistan-2015-11-02
Depressing. The bs never ends.

Please, the feds dumped $30 million into redesigning the "S" curves in South Mountain. Both wastes of money, IMHO, but your rant doesn't hold water.

mbaldwin said:

BG9 said:
How's infrastructure?
Do we need money to build or fix a school? That fire station? That police station? Your town hall?
Don't bother the Feds. They'll tell you to suck a lemon.
But if you're in Afghanistan then cost is no object. They have a new $43 million dollar two pump natural gas station courtesy of you and me, the US taxpayer.

A U.S.-built compressed natural-gas station in northern Afghanistan cost $43 million to build, and there’s no one around anymore to explain how the station came to cost so much, a government watchdog has said.

The money came from the Task Force for Business and Stability Operations, which was originally created by the Defense Department to help revive post-invasion Iraq. The task force was redirected to Afghanistan in 2009. Congress appropriated about $822 million between 2010 and 2014 to the effort.

It was unclear if the gas station is still operating or if it ever operated. According to Afghan documents SIGAR obtained, the business license of Qashqari Oil and Gas Services, the firm that was to operate the gas station, expired in November 2014 and has not been renewed.

Moreover, it appears that converting gasoline-powered cars to run on compressed
natural gas may be out of reach for all but very few Afghans, SIGAR
said. It costs about $700 to do the conversion, while the average annual income in Afghanistan is $690, the report said, citing World Bank figures.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-burns-43-million-to-build-gas-station-in-afghanistan-2015-11-02
Depressing. The bs never ends.

Please, the feds dumped $30 million into redesigning the "S" curves in South Mountain. Both wastes of money, IMHO, but your rant doesn't hold water.

Actually is does hold water. Didn't it take 10 years of begging to get the money? Whereas, in Iraq and Afghanistan the infrastructure money is like a waterfall, not the dripping spigot we get. They even get gas stations paid for.

Everyone complains vocally about the S-curve cost but lets go through the things that drove up the cost:

• Code - the curves were out of line with current standards and needed to be upgraded
• Kill minimal amounts of trees. Ok - so this, inline with above, adds to the cost
• Keep road open during construction. It would have been a nightmare but if they closed it, it could have been done both cheaper and faster - none of this interim repaving
• Keep the existing overpasses. Again, combined with 1 required them to be rebuilt. Adding in 2, basically requires the same location and adds to the complexity.
• Draining. More work required to keep the roads safe

This should not be compared to a boondoggle overseas. Could it have been done cheaper? Possibly but the its not a small job nor could it have been done for "average" cost of fixing a road due to the complexity.

mbaldwin said:

BG9 said:
How's infrastructure?
Do we need money to build or fix a school? That fire station? That police station? Your town hall?
Don't bother the Feds. They'll tell you to suck a lemon.
But if you're in Afghanistan then cost is no object. They have a new $43 million dollar two pump natural gas station courtesy of you and me, the US taxpayer.

A U.S.-built compressed natural-gas station in northern Afghanistan cost $43 million to build, and there’s no one around anymore to explain how the station came to cost so much, a government watchdog has said.

The money came from the Task Force for Business and Stability Operations, which was originally created by the Defense Department to help revive post-invasion Iraq. The task force was redirected to Afghanistan in 2009. Congress appropriated about $822 million between 2010 and 2014 to the effort.

It was unclear if the gas station is still operating or if it ever operated. According to Afghan documents SIGAR obtained, the business license of Qashqari Oil and Gas Services, the firm that was to operate the gas station, expired in November 2014 and has not been renewed.

Moreover, it appears that converting gasoline-powered cars to run on compressed
natural gas may be out of reach for all but very few Afghans, SIGAR
said. It costs about $700 to do the conversion, while the average annual income in Afghanistan is $690, the report said, citing World Bank figures.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-burns-43-million-to-build-gas-station-in-afghanistan-2015-11-02
Depressing. The bs never ends.

Please, the feds dumped $30 million into redesigning the "S" curves in South Mountain. Both wastes of money, IMHO, but your rant doesn't hold water.

Exactly. You can certainly argue that we could find better uses for 30 million dollars in Essex County, but there is no comparison between the S-curves project and the 42 million spent in Afghanistan when I suppose 41 million wound up in somebody's pocket.

When I say the project is a boondoggle, I mean in some of the elements of the project, not the fact of doing it. That was sorely needed. But I can't fathom why the footbridges needed to be so massive, for example. And while I applaud planting trees, it appears that they may have gone a bit overboard in spots with that, although I guess time will tell.

kthnry said:

Nevets said:
Maybe Obama can take NJT or one of the crippled bridges/tunnels from Newark to his fundraisers in NYC tonight and see how we have neglected these critical arteries over the years.

Are you seriously blaming Obama for infrastructure neglect?

Kthnry,

You need to understand- everything is Obama's fault. Drought- Obama failure; floods- Obama's fault... bright sun Obama's fault; dark at night--- well who else could be to blame? Unless of course they can blame Bill Clinton

Outrageous that the gas tax at 18.4 cents/gallon has not changed since 1993; Congress is starving our infrastructure of desperately needed improvements.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/04/opinion/the-bill-that-would-make-roads-less-safe.html?ref=todayspaper

Apollo_T said:

kthnry said:

Nevets said:
Maybe Obama can take NJT or one of the crippled bridges/tunnels from Newark to his fundraisers in NYC tonight and see how we have neglected these critical arteries over the years.

Are you seriously blaming Obama for infrastructure neglect?

Kthnry,
You need to understand- everything is Obama's fault. Drought- Obama failure; floods- Obama's fault... bright sun Obama's fault; dark at night--- well who else could be to blame? Unless of course they can blame Bill Clinton

If you google "Thanks Obama," you get:

About 21,300,000 results (0.42 seconds)

tjohn said:
Exactly. You can certainly argue that we could find better uses for 30 million dollars in Essex County, but there is no comparison between the S-curves project and the 42 million spent in Afghanistan when I suppose 41 million wound up in somebody's pocket.

The Gas Station in Afghanistan was clearly a slush fund. Someone needed to be paid off(warlord?). I completely agree with this.

rbcole123 said:
Outrageous that the gas tax at 18.4 cents/gallon has not changed since 1993; Congress is starving our infrastructure of desperately needed improvements.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/04/opinion/the-bill-that-would-make-roads-less-safe.html?ref=todayspaper

They run a $4 Trillion dollar budget. What makes you think a gas tax hike is magically going to get Congress to address infrastructure? It's not like they don't have any budget lying around.

For Congress, it's not about budgets, or infrastructure, or the people who use infrastructure. It's about Grover Norquist and their anti-tax pledges.

The people that the GOP servers don't need no stinkin' infrastructure. They'll take a helicopter.

The problem is Grover Norquist?

Y E S !!!

"ATR organizes the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, which
asks all candidates for federal and state office to commit themselves
in writing to the American people to oppose all net tax increases. In
the 114th Congress, 219 House members and 49 Senators have taken the
pledge. On the state level, 14 governors and over 1,000 state
legislators have taken the pledge."

I notice that revenues aren't keeping up with expenditures, even though the same legislators are voting for each.

Interesting. I can see how it would be possible to lay some blame on Norquist for Federal Deficits. But, I'm not sure I follow the logic that he is to blame for our infrastructure issues.