CTA - Full of Morons!

[Jenksismyhero]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/c...0,5280664.story

 

With the repair bill heading toward $2 million, the CTA will replace the platforms at three more Brown Line rail stations where wooden planks prematurely deteriorated because they were not weather-treated, transit officials said.

 

The full deck replacements are planned for later this year and in 2013 at the recently built Armitage, Sedgwick and Kedzie stations, CTA spokesman Brian Steele said. Dates and costs have not yet been determined, he said. Temporary station closings may be necessary.

 

The chronic rotting, splitting and warping of the Southern yellow pine planks first came to the CTA's attention in the summer of 2008, three years after the $530 million Brown Line capacity-expansion project began. The decay accelerated rapidly, and CTA officials acknowledged it was a mistake to install wood that was pre-treated only with fire-retardant chemicals.

 

Weather-proofing chemicals were subsequently applied, but in many cases it was too late because moisture-soaked planks were already rotting from the inside, officials said. It caused the wood planks to sag when walked on. Heel marks from shoes that sink into the soft wood can be seen at many platforms.

 

"When you step on some planks, you feel them really flex. It feels like they are kind of ready to go," said Jon Markel, 35, a Brown Line rider who uses the Kedzie station.

[Texsox]

By saving money upfront and squeezing stuff into the budget. People do that all the time.