Determination to finish Seattle tunnel boosts Dori’s confidence in government
Feb 20, 2015, 2:21 PM | Updated: 4:39 pm
Dust rises from the access pit on the Seattle waterfront as the boring machine approaches its exit point. (WSDOT webcam)
(WSDOT webcam)
Taken from Friday’s edition of KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson Show.
I know that I’m often a critic of government but this really boosts my spirit about the Bertha project.
If you’re starting to lose confidence in government, this will turn that around.
“Part of our job is to make sure that we deliver this project for the taxpayers – finish what we started. The contractor has that same goal,” Matt Preedy, Washington state Department of Transportation deputy program administrator, said in a news conference Thursday.
Related: Bertha makes it through concrete wall into access pit
They have this goal to finish what they started. I didn’t realize they have that kind of stick-to-it-iveness in government these days.
So the department of transportation and the contractor, Seattle Tunnel Partners, they both have the goal to finish what they started.
So what they do – because I do a lot of goal setting. It’s part of personal life, my coaching life, we do some goal setting for the show. So they sat around one day and they said, alright guys, brainstorming session because that’s the best way to set goals – which goals do we have for this project? There are no bad ideas at this point, but they probably had some that people threw out.
Somebody said, I have an idea – how about that project that we start, the multi-billion dollar project when we dig that big hole and we put that machine down there, how about if we finish it someday?
A slow clap started getting louder and louder, then everybody yelled, yeah, we’re going to finish this someday. And they were all fired up and they thought, this is it. We have come up with something that we can promise the people.
I’m telling you, this is a breakthrough moment for me because I didn’t know they were planning to finish it. They’re going to finish what they started, and again, it’s not like the WSDOT wants to finish it and Seattle Tunnel Partners is saying, no, no, no or vise versa.
That sends me flying into the weekend on gossamer wings.
Taken from Friday’s edition of KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson Show.
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