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The Big Dig has been the most expensive highway project in the U.S. Although the project was estimated at $2.8 billion in 1985, the actual cost was over $14.6 billion that had been spent by 2006. There have been criminal arrests, death, leaks, quality concerns, safety violations and use of substandard materials. The Massachusetts Attorney General sought a refund of $108 million from the contractors.

A report issued by the Massachusetts State Inspector General said that Bechtel actively participated "in the promulgation of misleading reports to the state Legislature, "to obscure Big Dig costs." The report also claimed that "the Turnpike Authority which oversees the Big Dig, relies too much on the Bechtel team…and has not held it responsible for errors"

The project was concluded on December 31, 2007, when the partnership between contractor Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff and the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority ended.

If I go to Boston I will seek alternate routes. This example of apparent corporate malfeasance and incompetence could stand on it's own as a caution against the use of at least Bechtel in the future. That, however, is not an option.

Bechtel has close associations with politicians that guarantee that it receives lucrative contracts regardless of its record or character. For example the Massachusetts Secretary for Administration and Finance Andrew Natsios, who left that post to become director of USAID.

The United States Agency for International Development (or USAID) is the United States federal government organization responsible for most non-military foreign aid. An independent federal agency, it receives overall foreign policy guidance from the United States Secretary of State and seeks to "extend a helping hand to those people overseas struggling to make a better life, recover from a disaster or striving to live in a free and democratic country."

USAID states that "U.S. foreign assistance has always had the twofold purpose of furthering America's foreign policy interests in expanding democracy and free markets while improving the lives of the citizens of the developing world."

It has often been suggested that the US government gives aid to reward political and military partners rather than "extend a helping hand to those people overseas struggling to make a better life, recover from a disaster or striving to live in a free and democratic country."

In April 2003, USAID announced that Bechtel won a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract worth up to $680 million to rebuild Iraqi infrastructure.

By September 2003, USAID announced that, due to the poor infrastructure and deteriorating stability in Iraq, Bechtel would receive an additional $350 million on the contract, raising the contract's potential ceiling to $1.03 billion.

Bechtel Corp. went to Iraq in 2003. It was hired to rebuild the war devastated country. By 2006 52 of its people killed, executed. Others were kidnapped. There were the wounded. Its work sabotaged. Bechtel has left.

"Did Iraq come out the way you hoped it would?" asked Cliff Mumm, Bechtel's president for infrastructure work. "I would say, emphatically, no. And it's heartbreaking."

Bechtel was paid 2.3 billion dollars to do the job. However the escalating violence and the hard hostile environment ate up the money as Bechtel amped up security by purchasing armored vehicles and supplying fortifications to its camps. Eventually many projects were stopped because of collapsing security, rendered dangerous and unable to be maintained.

"That's really an under-told story -- we've stopped the reconstruction," said Frederick Barton, co-director of the Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project at the Center for Strategic & International Studies think tank. "There are some things we're still finishing up, but we're wrapping up, and we're stepping back. It's really a tragedy."

What exactly did Bechtel accomplish in its three years in Iraq?

-- The company helped repair 14 electrical generation units, built four new ones and created 25 substations around Baghdad.

-- It restored eight sewage plants and built one.

-- A canal bringing drinking water to Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, was dredged and its pumps restored. Seventy small water treatment plants were installed in rural areas.

-- Airports in Baghdad and Basra were repaired to handle civilian flights. The country's international shipping port -- Umm Qasr -- was dredged and its grain elevator refurbished.

-- Baghdad telephone switching stations knocked out during the war were restored, and the country's phone network was reconnected to the outside world.

-- War-damaged bridges on key highways were rebuilt.

(And this is the one that I like.)

-- Almost 1,240 schools were refurbished with new paint, fans and in many cases new windows and doors to replace those looters had stolen.

But many of these accomplishments were undone as security evaporated.

For example, Bechtel added 1,280 megawatts to the nation's power grid and improved the reliability of another 480 megawatts. In the United States, that much energy could light more than 1.3 million homes.

But Iraq's entire power system this summer produced 4,400 megawatts, just 442 megawatts more than before the invasion.

In some cases, the power plants have had trouble getting stable fuel supplies. In others, repaired plants were cut off from the national grid by sabotaged power lines. At one point a series of coordinated attacks severed Baghdad from power generated in the rest of the country, leaving the city's 7 million residents with only a few hours of electricity each day.

Cost and time overruns were enormous. A project, in Basra, favored by Laura Bush, a state-of-the-art children's hospital, was supposed to cost $50 million. Bechtel later stated that the hospital would take far more money and time to complete. Bechtel says the hospital now would cost $98 million. The project was suspended. Federal auditors blame USAID for not reporting the project delays and costs to Congress. They also say the figure is probably higher.

Twice the price and dangerous to boot:

Bechtel's hospital site security manager was murdered.
The site manager resigned after death threats.
Bechtel's senior Iraqi engineer quit. His daughter was kidnapped.
Twelve electricians and plumbers were killed.
Eleven concrete workers died.

Why, beyond the profiteering to be accomplished, didn't Bechtel pull out?

Mumm said the company constantly reviewed security and was convinced that it could keep its people safe.

"We didn't stay under duress," he said. "I think all of our people got in it, got involved in it, and no one wants to leave a job half-done."

Munn insisted that Bechtel did accomplish something in Iraq. The electrical or sewage plants that have broken down can be repaired and made to function, if, and it's a big if, peace and stability ever return and qualified people can be found.

The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR), is a congressionally mandated office that has oversight of all U.S. spending on Iraq reconstruction.
It's oversight has shown certain facts to be inconsistent with claims made by Bechtel. For example, the company reports that it rebuilt "war-damaged bridges on key highways." But SIGIR's October report to Congress finds that "no bridge or expressway projects have been completed" in Iraq.

Bechtel also claims that it failed to build a key maternal and children's hospital in Basra because of "security concerns." While SIGIR, on the other hand, makes clear that it ordered Bechtel to be dropped from the $50 million project after the company misreported its progress and went $90 million over budget and a year and a half behind schedule.