Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Does This Sound Familiar?

From the Boston Herald:

The $147 million taxpayer-funded price tag for a ____________ already likened to a ____________ could soar $40 million higher because of allegations the state hid pre-construction problems in the bidding process.


I know what you're thinking. Which leaking, crumbling, or otherwise poorly constructed section of the Big Dig are they talking about this time?

They're not.

A legal battle over the massive expenses incurred during the controversial renovation of downtown Boston's John Adams Courthouse has erupted in Suffolk Superior Court, where builders and subcontractors are demanding millions more for work on the historic Pemberton Square building.

They charge that the state failed to come clean when the job went to bid in 2001 about design flaws relating to fitting electrical and mechanical equipment, cooling tower issues, the presence of calcimine paint and possibly asbestos in the soil of the tunnels under the structure.

[snip]

Lower court judges jokingly refer to the building - with its marble, granite and mahogany office suites for the judges complete with private baths and kitchens - as the "Palace of Versailles” and SJC Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall as “Marie Antoinette."


Bienvenue au Massachusetts.