Friday, July 14, 2006
Breaking Down the Connector
Not surprisingly, the Port Authority Board voted 5-2 on the morning of July 13th to approve the main construction contract for the $435 million extension of the trolley under the Allegheny River and to the North Shore.
It now means that the project—originally conceived as a $360 million link that would also go to the Convention Center as well as the North Shore—will be an overly expensive link from Downtown to the stadiums, which were built with taxpayer dollars.
Beginning with a Policy Brief in 2001, the Allegheny Institute has outlined the tangible and intangible costs this project would place on the region.
Never has a project that received such a tepid vote of support from the region’s elected officials gone this far simply because not one of those folks was willing to step up and take effective action. Sad to say, even the board members who voted against it did so because they were worried that the already bankrupt authority did not have the financial wherewithal to take on the Connector, not that the project was wrong on its merits.
Instead, the Connector was approved as a result of “false choice” arguments that supporters bought into, such as:
• Pittsburgh is getting free Federal money for this project and it can’t be shifted to another project
• Too much time and money already invested in the planning process
• This is the first leg of the expansion of the light rail system to points north, east, and west
Of course, appeals by the project’s beneficiaries (construction unions and professional engineers) did a lot to keep the Connector going. That’s ultimately what won the day yet again—a small group of interested parties seeking to get their piece of the action. It makes a mockery of the term “public infrastructure”. This large project will benefit so few.
It is not a stretch of the imagination to argue that one day the North Shore Connector will hold the “exalted status” now given the Big Dig and the now forgotten “Bridge to Nowhere”, as well as other local testaments to special interest pandering and greed.
It now means that the project—originally conceived as a $360 million link that would also go to the Convention Center as well as the North Shore—will be an overly expensive link from Downtown to the stadiums, which were built with taxpayer dollars.
Beginning with a Policy Brief in 2001, the Allegheny Institute has outlined the tangible and intangible costs this project would place on the region.
Never has a project that received such a tepid vote of support from the region’s elected officials gone this far simply because not one of those folks was willing to step up and take effective action. Sad to say, even the board members who voted against it did so because they were worried that the already bankrupt authority did not have the financial wherewithal to take on the Connector, not that the project was wrong on its merits.
Instead, the Connector was approved as a result of “false choice” arguments that supporters bought into, such as:
• Pittsburgh is getting free Federal money for this project and it can’t be shifted to another project
• Too much time and money already invested in the planning process
• This is the first leg of the expansion of the light rail system to points north, east, and west
Of course, appeals by the project’s beneficiaries (construction unions and professional engineers) did a lot to keep the Connector going. That’s ultimately what won the day yet again—a small group of interested parties seeking to get their piece of the action. It makes a mockery of the term “public infrastructure”. This large project will benefit so few.
It is not a stretch of the imagination to argue that one day the North Shore Connector will hold the “exalted status” now given the Big Dig and the now forgotten “Bridge to Nowhere”, as well as other local testaments to special interest pandering and greed.
