15 May 2008

time to get my blog on.....

I have been stuck in the idiocracy that is INDOT over the last few days, so, my apologies for not getting to more posts.

Let me just say, if there is one state department that reeks of waste and nonsense it is the Indiana Department of Transportation. I spent the last two whole days in training for software that promises to increase my time spent in communicating with INDOT probably 4-fold. Seriously, I have a manual 3 1/2" thick just to navigate through their new system.

And what have I been doing with my lunches and breaks during training? Making phone call after phone call between clients and INDOT in order to straighten out a mess that INDOT created. No kidding, we are on the 5th interpretation of their rules.........this WEEK!

Think about this: contractors and consultants alike double their mark-ups and fees when dealing with INDOT due to the red tape. So, for every contract awarded by INDOT, for every dollar represented in that contract.........about 30 cents goes to "hassle charges" rather than real construction.

I'm going to guess INDOT awards not less than $100 million in contracts each year. That means about $30 million is the "hassle charge". I could be off on my numbers, but you get the idea. Hey, Mitch! Here's a place you can apply some common sense government reduction!

Thank goodness we leased the toll road........it can pay for the inflated prices at INDOT.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Americans (especially R's) love to believe that we are the fathers of everything good in the world including the interstate highway system.The fact is Hitler and his engineers are the fathers of modern highway design, While Eisenhour was quick to replicate what he saw in Germany the one thing we did not do was replicate the quality that goes into the road building in Germany to this day! You see the roads in Europe are far more expensive to build but the CONTRACTORS are responsible for maintenance for the road for 25 years at their expense!!!! So while they pay more up front the Germans pay much less going forward because they aren't REBUILDING things constantly!

Anonymous said...

A friend of mine works for a civil engineering firm here in Capital City, and don't get her started talking about INDOT project tomfoolery.

One of my favorite blogs covers major INDOT projects around Indiana cities: http://theurbanophile.blogspot.com/.

Anonymous said...

Hey, you forgot IDEM. I think they are at least a 50% markup for hassle factors! Probably not what you were wanting to hear.

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