EDC ENGINEERS MAKE MAJOR MISCALCULATION IN BASS PRO SHOP PARKING LOT DIMENSIONS: ADDITIONAL COST AT LEAST $870,000 DOLLARS MORE THAN BUDGETED!

The final figures may be much more but for now the minimum extra costs added onto the already bloated outrageous cost of the Bass Pro Shop project was just dealt a major blow to its budget tonight at the latest meeting of the Harlingen EDC Board meeting held at city hall tonight at 5:30PM.  

It was revealed by the EDC hired engineering firm of Brown, Leal and Associates, that one of their engineers had made a major mistake in calculating the actual square footage of the Bass Pro Shops parking lot area.  Evidently, the engineer made his square footage financial cost projections based on the wrong dimensions of the parking lots.

The mistake will cost EDC an extra $870,000 dollars minimum to correct the major error.  "This is $870,000 that we don't have and we didn't factor into the project, this is a major screw up and puts the EDC deeper in the hole than we ever expected," stated Mr. X, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity.  "The $870,000 is only the minimum extra cost the EDC will have to try and make up somewhere else, this figure could go much higher than that when you add in the cost of extra materials, the higher price of petroleum based products like asphalt, extra sales taxes on the materials needed, extra bonding costs, additional equipment, and of course the cost of extra labor to do the added parking lot square footage that was not figured into the original cost figures," said Mr. X.

 

"The final figure to make up this horrific mistake could be anywhere between $870,000 and $1,000,000 dollars extra by the time everything is factored in," he said with a disgusted look on his face.  

Among other options, the EDC discussed taking out a loan for $3 million dollars at 6% interest over a 5 year period to help alleviate their financial crisis.

On a brighter note, the EDC employed engineering firm of Brown, Leal and Associates spokesman, Jack Brown, related that he was able to negotiate a savings of $300,000 dollars on the BPS project thru some serious arm twisting with electrical conglomerate AEP.  Makes you wonder how much fat these guys really have built into these contracts.  $300,000 here and $870,000 there, pretty soon you are talking about some real money!
So, after the dust settled, EDC was only out an extra $570,000 dollars, not a bad days work, all things considered!

READ: Parking lot error could cost EDC $920K - Valley Morning Star