{"id":2076,"date":"2010-05-12T07:16:41","date_gmt":"2010-05-12T11:16:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=2076"},"modified":"2010-05-12T07:29:15","modified_gmt":"2010-05-12T11:29:15","slug":"the-lake-champlain-bridge-as-a-new-model-for-new-york-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/05\/12\/the-lake-champlain-bridge-as-a-new-model-for-new-york-state\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lake Champlain bridge as a new model for New York state"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>At yesterday’s meeting in Addison, Vermont, New York state officials and their contractors seemed baffled by their own efficiency.<\/p>\n

As recently as last October they assured local residents that reconstruction of the Lake Champlain bridge at Crown Point would take a minimum of five years.<\/p>\n

Five months later, the DOT has already solicited a low bidder on the project, which at roughly $70 million came in under their cost estimates.<\/p>\n

They’ve removed the old bridge and built a functioning ferry system, despite incredibly challenging conditions.\u00a0 Construction on the new span could begin as early as this month.<\/p>\n

What’s more, state officials say they were able to secure every single environmental, historical and safety permit required for the project.<\/p>\n

Perhaps most importantly, there have been no serious injuries or fatalities.<\/p>\n

Now granted, this was an emergency.\u00a0 State workers can’t be expected to work round the clock, burning weekends and holidays, on every project.<\/p>\n

But surely the effort at Crown Point teaches us something.<\/p>\n

At a time when New York state has no choice but to trim state government, perhaps drastically, the Lake Champlain bridge shows that ambitious and important public work can get done quickly, efficiently and safely.<\/p>\n

The next Governor should appoint a review team to study this success story and find out how to replicate it, not just for other DOT efforts but across state government.<\/p>\n

That review should pose some thorny questions to top state officials:<\/p>\n

Why did the DOT think it needed five years, if the work could really get done in 23 months?\u00a0 What assumptions were they operating under, and how can we eliminate as many of those mental and bureaucratic boxes as possible?<\/p>\n

At a time when Albany is a national symbol for gridlock and government failure, the Crown Point effort can be a symbol of something better and more hopeful.<\/p>\n

It was exciting to see that the project’s leaders shared that excitement and pride — not just at the development of a beautiful new bridge, but at their victory over red tape, waste and muddle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At yesterday’s meeting in Addison, Vermont, New York state officials and their contractors seemed baffled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2076"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2076"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2078,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2076\/revisions\/2078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}