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The final curtain has fallen on the ambitious St. Louis Park, Minn., Wi-Fi network: The city claims the contractor did a terrible job in planning and deploying the network, especially since the vendor received the contract through a low bid based on using solar-powered nodes. The city found the nodes were placed poorly for charging, and that the company, Arinc, used “the wrong locations” and “the wrong materials,” according to the CIO.
It’s a sad situation, the Star Tribune says, “that council and staff members said has ‘sickened’ them.” The city owns the network, and had hired Arinc, which in turn contracted some local operations. Arinc is a large firm which has previously built Wi-Fi networks, but not using solar power. The city has spent to $800,000 on the network , but the story says the city might sue Arinc to recover this. It would cost $3m to build the rest of the network out, the city says, a far cry from the $1.7m that Arinc bid.
Some small part of the additional cost had to do with a redesign of the tall poles on which solar panels were mounted after residents complained about the garish appearance. They’re breathing a sigh of relief now that they know their reportedly pretty town won’t be festooned with such stakes.
Regarding the poles, the mayor had some choice language on the subject: ” ‘We’re going to tell Arinc, “Come get your poles, take them out of the ground, stick them someplace where the solar panels won’t work at all,” ’ Mayor Jeff Jacobs said.”
Posted by Glennf at January 23, 2008 7:28 PM
Categories: Financial, Metro-Scale Networks, Municipal
TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://db.isbn.nu/mt3/mt-tb.pl/4990
Municipal procurement laws in Minnesota stink. The City, legally has to choose the lowest qualified bid. In order to de-qualify the bid the City must find the bid non-compliant or the bidder not capable. In reviewing Arinc's web site, history of previous WiFi networks, declaring them not capable would have been a stretch. At least with the word out, Arinc will now be able to be rejected by other cities when they bid.
Posted by: George at January 25, 2008 6:19 AM
In going with the low bid the City got what they paid for: cheap equipment, poor design, etc. Whose fault is that?
Posted by: Karl at January 24, 2008 2:52 PM
I've been following this story for some time. The City did issue permits for pole placements based on Arinc's selected locations. The reason it does not work is that the poles are located in spots without enough sun. Arinc was selected under a contract which specified performance and Arinc was to design and install a network which meet the specified performance. Given that Arinc handles much of military's communication, it certainly makes me fail safe.
Posted by: George at January 24, 2008 1:36 PM
I wonder if there isn't blame that can go around to everyone involved in the project? Didn't a planning board have to approve the install of the solar panels and poles? If so, didn't they have to go through some sort of open meeting forum where residents of the city could voice their opinion at this forum. It's hard to say what all has happened and history of what went on but the way the Mayor and City are acting, they are looking for a scapegoat.
Posted by: Bill at January 24, 2008 7:48 AM