World Class!
Is there any aspect of the new Main Street rail development that was not thoroughly botched by Lee Brown and friends?
Here's the latest:
As Houston's long, hot, muggy summer begins enveloping the city, thirsty train riders and downtown pedestrians are likely to indulge in the cool refreshment that 20 new water fountains on Main Street would seem to offer.There's a shocker.The only problem: 16 of the fountains do not work. And of the others, two emit barely a trickle of water. And if that wasn't bad enough, the water is so hot it's likely to cause the drinker to immediately spit it out in disgust. The remaining two fountains produce, at best, room-temperature waves that shoot out so strongly that one is likely to get splashed in the face.
"There is a leak somewhere in the irrigation system and the fountains are hooked into that," explained Jodie Sinclair, spokeswoman for the Houston Downtown Management District, which installed the black fountains as part of numerous amenities along the rail line. "If you turn the drinking fountains on, you will activate the leak, wherever it is.
"We are still searching for it."
The fountains -- the only public outdoor fixtures of their kind downtown -- were finished late last year in time for the Jan. 1 rail opening. Most of them have yet to quench anyone's thirst.
Texas Sterling Construction installed the 10 fountain pairs, randomly scattered from Bell to Commerce streets, as part of its contract with the Metropolitan Transit Authority to construct the light rail's downtown segment.
Metro spokesman Ken Connaughton said the contractor met with the management district last week about the problem, "but we don't know how long it will take to isolate and repair the leak."
Memo to METRO: it is not world class when you can't even get a drinking fountain to work properly.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/24/04 19:54 | Danger Train | Technorati
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Comments
where do I start? yet another reason Houston's Light Rain should be a national laughing stock.
You know, my brother and I commuted to UH together for two years. The HOV lane from the north side dumps us in town so we had to drive down Smith or Milam to Jefferson to get over to campus.
Both of our suspensions are shot. "Thank you Mayor Lee Brown," is in so ingrained in us that we almost say it in unison as we slam through yet another pothole that is going to cost us a fortune in getting the realignment straightened out.
Posted by Amanda @ 00:47 on 05/27/04
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