California Paid For Bridge Repairs While A Wind Farm Project Recouped Costs From Same Contractor, Same Flaws
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) — The Chinese company that fabricated faulty sections of the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge had similar problems with some towers it manufactured for a massive wind farm in the North Sea. A Bay Area legislator now claims that a contractor for Caltrans knew about cracks in that project, but didn't do anything about it.
The Sacramento Bee reports that at about the same time that ZPMC was fabricating huge sections of the eastern span of the Bay Bridge, they were also making steel towers to hold up wind turbines off the coast of England.
Just like at the Bay Bridge project, the wind tower had problems with cracking in welds.
In the case of the North Sea project, ZPMC had to pay back contractors $400 million in repair costs.
Caltrans, however, paid out $1 billion to repair problems on the eastern span and ended up covering the entire cost.
Sate sen. Mark DeSaulnier told KCBS he thinks that is "nuts."
"I think we should investigate it. I think both, at the federal level, if there is any federal money that was lost because of this that could be recovered and state funds—and toll funds we should look at very strongly.
The Bee reports that the contractor, that hired ZPMC to build the steel sections, never told Caltrans about the issue it was having with the wind farm.