City of Ottawa - State of The Burg(h)ers

I affect not reserves, which I do not feel. 
Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton, No. 1

The Oracle of Ottawa has recently become more and more befuddled at the actions of Gentleman Jim the mayor and his merry band of burg(h)ers. The vulgar media coverage of the great mans latest obsession to score Ottawa its very own gambling house just boggles the ordinary mind. And his obsession that it has to be "downtown" in Ottawa, which is the federal capital of Canada, is all rather appearing  to resemble salient behavior. Yet like a dog chasing a hubcap, he just pushes on. His first light bulb of an idea, to have said new casino in the old train station, which is now known as the Ottawa Conference Center was shot down in flames by the National Capital Commission, as was the brilliant idea to build it in the new disposable building recently completed at Rideau Center.

Gentleman Jim beckons to the Lead Nugget Casino....

 It has not crossed the little hay seeds mind that any Casino in downtown Ottawa would be less than two miles away from the very posh Casino already in operation in Gatineau Quebec! The befuddled mayor fails to realize that Ottawa has been beat to the gambling dollar punch by several years by the Frenchmen. And any Casino built in Ottawa, that will certainly look like a McDonalds burger joint,  certainly won't endear the spoiled rotten low rollers of Ottawa!

Let us put all these recent events into perspective dear reader. The mayor and council of the City of Ottawa want to build a new Casino, posher than the one in Quebec, very close by. The City of Ottawa is going to build an insane "light rail" system and subway for a mere 1.5 billion dollars, starting anytime soon. We are screwed into a public -private partnership in Landsdowne Park that is ready over budget... In the meantime people are driving their cars into massive "sink holes" that was actually the failure of a structure that hadn't been looked at in God Knows how long! The people of Ottawa cannot even afford to get their garbage picked up once a week! Those poor souls living the burbs are terrified at when the next overloaded garbage truck is going to collide with another garbage truck or just end up in the living room! All in an attempt by City HR to make all the Garbage truck drivers, better truck drivers and better garbage men, with two or more routes a day! You can do it if you TRY!!!  Well it appears not.... The small town cheap hypocrisy is simply astounding, and will prove soon enough to be utterly fatal.

Yes, we will get that shit hole casino, it won't be downtown though. The Oracle of Ottawa has realized just today where it will in the end, be situated. Due to the inability to attract retailers to the Landsdowne Live site, and the utterly laughable suggestion that any one will shell out fifty million dollars to get their name on a certain train wreck, which has as about as much of chance of happening as Gentleman Jim catching AIDS. Oh yeah.. About as much chance of being hit by lightning... Gentleman Jim's  Lead Nugget Casino will be the feature attraction!! The people of the Glebe will no doubt be thrilled!

The year is 2016. The site is Landsdowne Live, Gentleman Jim's Lead Nugget Casino beckons, can you feel the ambiance??

City of Ottawa - Geotechnical Primer

Paradigms can be asked to show their worth, and some of them do not stand up.
Simon Blackwell, Think, Reasoning, p. 231

Have you ever met a retired Foundation Engineer? Didn't think so. It is about as rare as meeting a retired Ottawa firefighter or a retired homicide detective from any where in North America. The main reason in the case of the foundation engineer is the life of never ending stress. Yes, you will make a great living, as long as you can keep your PEO certification and get liability insurance. But just one screw up, usually through no fault of your own, and your whole practice, life, everything will be taken from you, just like a municipal politician that screws up, and gets voted out never to return...

Complex surface foundation Edinburgh

Have you ever taken a walk around the City of Ottawa? Especially downtown? Do you check out the construction sights of all those new high rises and condo towers? It is neat to look down the hole from the street and note the interesting layers of the sand, rock and clay layers isn't it? And isn't it somewhat weird that if you go only a block or two and look down into the hole of another construction site and the geology is almost always totally different? And do you notice those elaborate pilings and tension cables that might ensure the whole hole from sliding into itself? Yes, Dear Reader, a deep tower foundation anywhere in Ottawa is mighty tricky stuff, fraught with worry. You can do a search on Google about foundation collapses in Sandy Hill, but you may not want to upset yourself.    

The Big Dig, Boston MA.

Quick now, how many tunnels are there in Ottawa? Right! Not many! Why do you think that is? Back in the halcyon days of the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton the great Andrew Haydon and his most competent staff, all of whom, nearly to a man, were terminated like garbage upon the Conservative "Common Sense Revolution" of Mike Harris, already had a long term Transit Plan for the City of Ottawa way into this century! And, right again, there were no plans for any tunnels. Quite simply because once the core samples were seen it was a no brainer! Gophering around underground in the heart of the old city of Ottawa is totally foolhardy! Just ask anyone who has done something easy like dig a large hole anywhere in this geotechnical nightmare!

Big Dig, a small structual problem, really...

What can possibly go wrong you ask? Where does the Oracle of Ottawa begin? Let us take an easy to reference disaster. Have you ever heard of the Big Dig in Boston? It was a classic half vast project, built on many half vast ideas. It was a total train wreck, please excuse the pun. The Oracle of Ottawa is going to call it now. The so called modified light rail tunnel as proposed for Ottawa has all the makings of the same kind of mega screw up! The depth of the said tunnel has been reduced by over 50% yet the price of its proposed construction was not reduced by 50%. Why do you think that is? Do you think there is information in that? Have you heard any sustained and continued interest by a major Canadian tunnel contractor? Hmmmm...

Well, the good thing is, that when this all heads south there will be many good names and reputations ruined forever. I figure, for over two thirds of the present council it will be the best thing that ever happened for the tax payers and stake holders of any municipality that they will be unable to run for even the elected position of dog catcher in an American southern state!

Ya! But! They had the lowest bid! Got a problem with that? Here is some free tickets to the Chinese Opera...