Bechtel, Romney and Bush and the Big Dig (big mess)

[ProSense]

Bechtel Corporation (Bechtel Group) is the largest engineering company in the United States. With headquarters in San Francisco, Bechtel ranks as the 6th-largest privately-owned company in the U.S. As of 2005, Bechtel had 40,000 employees working on projects in nearly 50 countries with $18.1 billion in revenue.

Bechtel participated in the building of Hoover Dam in the 1930s. It has also had involvement in several other high profile construction engineering projects, including the Channel Tunnel, numerous power projects, refineries, and nuclear power plants, the BART, Jubail Industrial City in Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong International Airport, the Big Dig, the rebuilding of the civil infrastructure of Iraq funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the hauling and installing of more than 35,000 trailers and mobile homes for Hurricane Katrina victims in Mississippi.

The Bechtel family has owned Bechtel since incorporating the company in 1925. Bechtel's size, its political clout, and its penchant for privacy have made it a perennial target for journalists and politicians since the 1930s. Bechtel has maintained strong relationships with officials in many United States administrations, including those of Nixon, Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush. The company also has strong ties to other governments, particularly the Saudi Royal Family.

Recently, the company has come under criticism for alleged mismanagement of the Big Dig project, its financial links to the bin Laden family, and the manner in which it received Iraqi rebuilding contracts after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Politicians in the United States and in Europe have made accusations of cronyism between the George W. Bush administration and Bechtel.

more...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechtel

Documents Reveal Big Dig Design Dispute

Monday July 17, 2006 9:31 PM

AP Photo MAMD103

By BROOKE DONALD

Associated Press Writer

BOSTON (AP) - Investigators probing the fatal collapse of a Big Dig tunnel ceiling have discovered documents showing there was a ``substantial dispute'' over whether the design of the tunnel was adequate to hold the weight of the ceiling panels, the attorney general said Monday.

Snip...

The National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Highway Administration and the Massachusetts Highway Department conducted pull tests Monday of selected bolts in the tunnel where the panels fell to determine the characteristics of the epoxy used.

Snip...

The $14.6 billion Big Dig buried the old elevated Central Artery that used to slice through the city, replacing it with a series of tunnels. Although it's been considered an engineering marvel, the most expensive highway project in U.S. history also has also been plagued by leaks, falling debris, cost overruns, delays and problems linked to faulty construction.

Reilly is leading a state criminal investigation and has said that both the contractor, Modern Continental Construction Co., and the project overseer, Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, were told in 1999 that five ceiling bolts had broken free during testing. He questioned whether a prescribed fix had been made.

Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff has defended the construction technique and said it was widely and successfully used throughout the construction industry.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,,-5957144,00.html

Big Dig damage: Gov. Romney was right, and wrong

Sunday, Jul. 16, 2006

MASSACHUSETTS GOV. Mitt Romney was certainly right to move to oust the apparently incompetent and clearly untrusted chairman of the turnpike authority in the wake of the latest and most serious Big Dig accident. Last Monday’s concrete panel collapse took one life and might easily have taken more.

Romney looked in command and sent the right message by leaving his New Hampshire vacation home to go directly to the scene last Tuesday morning. But he should have stayed there in pursuing Matt Amorello’s ouster and in assuring the public that he was looking after their safety.

Snip...

Instead, Romney went back to Lake Winnipesaukee that night, and caught some heat for it. A minor tactical error, perhaps; but for a budding Presidential candidate, it struck us as a pretty tone deaf move in this era of sound bites and searing images. Romney, however, recovered well, getting speedy approval from a Democratic-controlled Legislature to take over safety issues of the Dig.

Snip...

The Big Dig was vastly overpriced and all American taxpayers got the bill. It is important to all of us that its safety be assured.

more...

http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Big+Dig+damage%3A+Gov.+Romney+was+right%2C+and+wrong&articleId=5ff72423-00a8-4979-aed5-0625558e2b24

Another vacation-loving Repub.


What doee Bush do? Promote the former head of Big Dig to head of the Federal Highway Administration:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/03/15/kerry_to_put_hold_on_bush_nomination_for_top_highway_job/


Is the FHA going to conduct the inquiry?

[Auntie Bush]

1. Kick...for those watching K.O.

:kick:

[ProSense]

2. Groups ask highway chief to recuse himself

07/23/2006

Groups ask highway chief to recuse himself

WASHINGTON -- Watchdog groups and Massachusetts lawmakers are questioning how the federal highway chief can oversee an investigation into the Big Dig ceiling collapse -- when he used to head the Big Dig himself.

Critics are calling for Richard Capka to recuse himself from the investigation.

Capka headed the Big Dig project for 18 months and is now the Federal Highway administrator. The agency is investigating the ceiling collapse in the Interstate 90 connector tunnel that killed a motorist.

snip...

The Washington-based government watchdogs - The Center for Public Integrity -- says the situation is like having the coach of a team refereeing the game.

http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/BO23313