U.S. says: We should inspect safety at the Big Dig – This is a classic example of closing the barn door after the horse escapes: “
US urges full review of Big Dig - Inspector seeks $2m to oversee broader probes." Hey, what's another $2m among taxpayers.
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Did you ever see that NOVA episode on PBS (or maybe it was Frontline, I forgot) about the Big Dig? It was presented not only as an engineering marvel of the modern age, but as a resounding testament to the beneficience of Big Government and the evils of suburban life. I mean, the officials they interviewed talked about the costs as if money was just something to toss out from the back of a speeding train.
I worked with both Bechtel and George Tamaro, the slurry wall engineering guru, on a smaller but similarly-constructed tunnel in Europe during the nineties.
Bechtel were a cowboy outfit (amazingly so, they are money-grubbers. And I'm a capitalist pig, but they turned me off), George Tamaro a very, very, clever man.
They will not come out looking good, if their behavior was anything like I witnessed.
They THREW $50 million at a subcontractor, which was almost entirely unjustified, and all an extra to a taxpayer-financed project, to make themselves look like statesmen. The client was public sector, and therefore useless (willing to be gang-raped by thieving contractors). I was virtually the sole advocate of going to war with, rather than mollycoddling, the subcontractor.
To say I was quietly sidelined is polite. I was so disgusted I considered how I might whistleblow.
George Tamaro will end up looking right. Which I don't doubt he is. He's forgotten more about slurry walls than Bechtel will ever know.
They are the contracting equal of Enron, in an ethical sense. Seriously. Dirty, dirty, dirty.
Bechtel... dirty? But... they're GWB's close personal friends! And this is a 100% liberal lefty Harvard kumbaya Chappaquiddick Heinz ketchup Democratic scandal! TAKE IT BACK!!!
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