Serious allegations were aimed at the Seattle Monorail project Wednesday as a prominent engineering firm that was bidding to be one of the subcontractors decided to pull out, saying there are serious design flaws.This is the second time an engineering firm has removed itself from contention to build the Monorail.
Soon, there will be nobody left who's willing to build the sorry thing except maybe this guy.
UPDATE: More here:
Magnusson also said he was concerned about parts of the monorail being planned using only a single track, or beam ("When a train breaks down on the single beam, what do you do? The whole system comes to a halt"). Parts of the monorail are being planned using outdated seismic design criteria, he said, and he was also worried about the lack of planning regarding monorail "droppings," or debris created by the overhead trains raining down on pedestrians below.Heh. Maybe the title of this post should have been "Bomb falls from Monorail" Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at May 19, 2004 10:48 PM
Jon Magnusson may have an engineering point, but why won't he divulge it until an audience is assembled? He has certainly preceded his press conference with a splendid dramatic production to attract attention. If the alleged 'design flaws' are structural, then his opinion would have great weight. If not, then leveraging his celebrity to cause the most political damage - which he's certainly free to do - doesn't give him any more authority than Ron Sims or Dwight Pelz have.
Posted by: Insufficiently Sensitive on May 20, 2004 09:15 AM