Quincy News: Quincy Mayor Koch’s Medusa Touch for cost overruns now contaminating MBTA?

Quincy Mayor Koch’s Medusa Touch for cost overruns now contaminating the MBTA?

– News about Quincy Massachusetts covered by Quincy Quarry News with commentary added

Getting ready to actually shovel it at an indoor faux groundbreaking presser
A Quincy Quarry News file photo

Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch much-puffed role to see the former Lowe’s Home Improvement Center site in South Quincy taken off the local property tax rolls for repurposing as a huge bus MBTA maintenance and storage facility that abutters in the neighborhood did not want has been hit with yet another Koched-up cost overrun.

In short, Karma happens.

Mayor Koch did much to preen himself over the planned project given his somewhat recent naming to yet another MBTA external oversight body, however, the bids for the project came in well over what was anticipated.

Roughly thirty percent over what had been anticipated.

Is the bromance finally on the rocks?
A Quincy Quarry News file photo

As such, the MBTA passed on the bids, at least for now, and is revisiting things to determine if can scrounge up more funding, perhaps discern if there are ways to cut construction costs, or perhaps some combination of both,

Considering how things variously hit the fan both financially as well as regards a delayed competition time on the Wolllation MBTA Red LIne station, however, no one should hold their breath.

In the meanwhile, two additional problems have hit the fan.

One is that the MBTA is now facing a likely critical path time crunch to see the bus maintenance and bus garage built as the driving force for building the facility is to move away from diesel buses to all-electric buses.

And the other, Mayor Koch is concurrently looking at a delay in taking over the MBTA’s current buy maintenance and storage facility adjacent to Memorial Stadium on the fringes of Quincy’s Wollaston neighborhood.

Even more money yet is slated to go up in smoke
Image via cheat-sheet.com

Mayor Koch has long talked up building a fieldhouse on the site of the current MBTA bus yard as well as reliable sources have it has already spent local tax dollars on preliminary planning even though, best case, it will be years before this MBTA property might become a City of Quincy property.

Regardless, even at the intergovernmental transfer of public property for the proverbial dollar, one can only reasonably imagine very considerable hazmat clean-up remedial costs as the current MBTA bus yard has been used as a transportation maintenance facility for well over a hundred years, not to mention that the site is hard upon Black’s Creek and thus posing even more site remediation expenses.

Yet another nine-figure proposed Koched-up Edifice Complex
Proposed combined City Hall and Quincy College tower City of Quincy rendering

Needless to say, Koch’s Edifice Complex is surely jonesing something fierce even though there are at least three school gymnasiums nearby, including the near-new, nice, and roomy one at Central Middle School diagonally across the street from the current MBTA bus yard as well as the large one for a high school at relatively nearby Quincy High School.

Then again, perhaps Mayor Koch’s stealth plan is to build the fieldhouse at local taxpayers’ expense for at least partial use by supposed to operate independently care of Quincy College’s student tuition revenue.