Sooooo the airport that was supposed to open last year will now open in 2015 at the earliest. Some people think it won't be until 2017. This is AFTER it was originally scheduled to open in 2008. Last year was embarrassing. It had an actual opening date, flights were sold, and a lot of international promotion was spread out to death. Then about a MONTH before its opening, it was announced that it would be delayed for a few months. I made a joke at the time that it would probably open in 2015. Looks like it wasn't really a joke after all.
This isn't the only incident either. Nothing is ever on-schedule here, and many projects are full of problems. My building was finished late...I hate to scream at people on the phone, because they gave me a move-in date and then told me an EFFING WEEK before I moved in that it wouldn't be ready. I was like YOU MAKE IT READY...I GAVE NOTICE ON MY CURRENT APARTMENT AND HAVE NOWHERE ELSE TO LIVE. The building has moisture problems, because they didn't seal it right (this has nothing to do with my forced move-in...that part was supposed to be done months before that and they just hadn't finished the interior of my apartment).
Publicly, the Central Train Station here was late, and now it has to be renovated, only SEVEN YEARS AFTER IT OPENED...
The rest of the country isn't any better. Another popular embarrassment is the Stuttgart 21 project, which is a train station project littered with problems.
Stuff like this drives me crazy. Billions of euros in taxpayer money go to this stuff and it's really expensive when everything goes wrong. I'm not an insider, so I can't say exactly what they do wrong, but from the rumors I've heard, I have an idea. There's a tendency in this country to try to spend as little money as humanly possible, cut corners, and concentrate on the bottom line. This doesn't work for public projects, especially when safety is concerned. Of COURSE, there are problems, and they have to redo things, costing more money. I even saw this in some of my workplaces...get a project, do it as fast as possible, then when it's not right, do it again. It's EXPENSIVE and horribly inefficient. I think what they need is a project manager who can actually spend money. Someone who can say "right...this is a huge international airport/train station. It has to be high quality. What will it cost for experienced, high quality workers? XX? Ok, let's budget that, and have a bit extra in case something goes wrong." Do it right the first time, end of story. Instead, they hire low cost workers from outside of the country (I have no problem with foreign workers, but there are a lot of unemployed and underemployed construction workers who live here, and do great work...yes, they cost more, but come on...support your own, people). The rumor (and not from people who know absolutely nothing) is that many didn't speak German, and there were major communication problems.
In a nutshell, stop being so cheap, and do things right the first time, and IT WILL BE CHEAPER FOR YOU. Maybe berlin wouldn't be bankrupt if Wowereit could get his head out of his ass.
Anyway, it makes me so angry. I'm not against high taxes, and I have no problem with the amount of tax I pay. What makes me livid is the fact that these tax dollars are not going towards social support like subsidized daycare and universal health care, or freaking education, and instead billions are getting burned away by poor planning.
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