Dear Parsons, Bechtel and Brinckerhoff: Citizen Business, Nothing Personal...

 

Think Progress MN state officials knew of bridge failure. Comments

Dear Parsons, Bechtel and Brinckerhoff,

My opinion is my own and does not necessarily reflect those related to or acquainted with me. As they have not done the level of research about you that I have.

As a citizen of Minnesota USA, I am smart enough to recognize your pervasive influence all over the world. Even though you may use one name on any given project, you embody all three names given you by recorded business associations.

Where there is one of your 'well armed', there usually lurks the other two. I was ignorant and had no idea, after the Enron fiasco, that there were other corporations out there just like them. Driven solely by profits, without caring about the people -- the public citizen. Except for Halliburton, I was clueless.

I always took comfort in the fact that there were watchdog groups watching out for the average citizen, until Hurrican Katrina hit.

I had no idea the entire set of teeth that the advocate / activist watchdog groups had, were excised so greatly over the past several years. I suspected some dwindeling down,because of the culture of the two consecutive administrations.

You, dear corporation, appear to hide in a lofty place, above several layers of a specialized glass ceilings. Albeight safely and securely built with your own hands.

I suppose it is probable that a company as large as you, will have accidents along the way. And I suppose it is likely that negligence of oversight could occur when one employs so many subcontracting facets -- for one job.

But what I cannot accept, is that you could be harmful to my family members. As several cases indicate...you were harmful to someone else's family member.

A 'Someone" can't be replaced. Since a someone cannot be replaced, one doubt created about your interpretation of what professionalism means, is one doubt too many.

I have gone through all of the emotions that one can, once I learned that my family was all safe and sound after the 35W bridge plunged into the Mississippi River.

Then there was that awful nagging feeling and the discussions with family, about how close each one of us was, to being on the bridge at that exact moment.

I still catch my breath for those lost to the river. I still grieve for those that lost someone. I still mourn the loss of the familiar and have a helpless feeling about the void the loss has created.

You, my dear sirs and ladies, if you are local, may have had the same awful imagined scenarios going through your mind or the same conversations?

I don't want any further doubts forcing their way into my thoughts, as I drive all over heck and back trying to get from one place to the other through out every day that the bridge is gone.

You, dear company would cause me more worry and more grief by being in charge of inspection protocol for our bridges or any other project for that matter.

You see, you see the money, not the people. You are consumed by power, not prevention.

So, I will not 'willingly' allow you to come into my back yard, dictate my day and make me pay you through my taxes. Or make me pay you through the toll roads you and a few elected officials are attempting to create.

What, to pay you to cause me to worry when I have to go near one of your projects? What, to pay you in order to drive on the public roads I pay for through my public taxes?

I'm pretty sure, most Minnesotan's will not support your taking over our roads. You can survey that. If you didn't know this already, We are not really like any other state, from what I have seen.

Although we are in the worst shape anyone can recall in the history of the state, we are not down for the count.

With the exception of some radical wingnut take overs and a few selfish elite, we are still very much a state of logic, humanitarianism and we thrill at practical progressive thinking that includes everyone equally participating.

That's neither a right or a left way of thinking. It is the best way of thinking.

You may have some very well trained experts amongst your staff of thousands (including your favorite subcontractors). But after careful review of your track record, I have decided that you cannot have my tax dollars for anything connected to your 'work.'

You seem to have figured out effective ways to avoid judicial accountability over the many years, where your fingerprints are so obviously smudged all over projects with less than stellar results.

Even in the midst of projects where you could have exercised appropriate caution, change or stoppage; you seem to have dismissed key elements to preventing damage of someone or to something.

What kind of people work for a company that doesn't care about sound, secure, safe methods at the start and instead are willing to risk a summons, a civil suit or a jury trial? I think it is a company just like an Enron. A company that can buy time, buy people and buy a reputation.

You really do look bad to an average citizen like myself. You really do need to do something about that. Take responsibility for your actions and do the right thing, from now on.

Signed,
Awakening
Minnesota Citizen



============================================Minneapolis united in vision for future Interstate 35W Bridge MINNEAPOLIS "Mayor R.T. Rybak and all 13 Minneapolis City Council Members today approved a set of principles that outlines the City’s shared vision for building a new Interstate 35W Bridge."

Minnesota Officials No Free Pass - You Are FIRED! Saturday, August 04, 2007

.Common Sense Giant Construction Company Says It Advised Retrofitting Minnesota Bridge in 2006 posted 08-04-07

.Common Sense "Big Dig" Engineering Company Given Contract to "Review Minnesota Bridge Inspection Protocols" 08-05-07

Minnesota Say 'NO' To New 35W Bridge Builders! Sunday,August 05, 2007

Basic Flaw Sunday, August 12, 2007

. Common Sense Washington Post: How Rove Directed Federal Assets for GOP Gains "And they can make the taxpayer and the troops pay the price for themselves and their fat cat backers." August 19, 2007

Senator Norm Coleman - Party Like Its 1993 Sunday, August 19, 2007

110th Congress Worse Than the 109th?!? Sunday, August 19, 2007


Bush Administration Has Been Using Illegal Wiretapping and Spying Activity for Political Purposes. Doubt It? Submitted by mark karlin on Monday 08/20/2007 A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL

Pennsylvania to Impose $25 Tax on Driving Across State" "What do you think of the idea of turning freeways into toll roads?" NewMexiKen Thursday August 23, 2007

Hurricane George - How the White House Drowned New Orleans By Greg Palast Published August 23rd, 2007 "That leaves the big, big question: WHY? Why on earth would the White House not tell the city to get the remaining folks out of there?"

Find Emails, MySpace Profiles of Employees of High Profile Groups .Common Sense posted 08-24-07

==================================San Diego Union Tribune Recovery efforts in Louisiana called 'joke' February 24, 2007 “Why does Bechtel always seem to show up, whether it's a flood, a war or a circus?” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., said of the firm contracted through FEMA to install travel trailers on the hurricane-clobbered area.

Letters to the editor San Diego Tribune February 28, 2007
Questioning money trail in Gulf recovery efforts Regarding “Recovery efforts in Louisiana called 'joke' ” (News, Feb. 24): The article reported that “Bechtel received a $500 million contract without competition on Aug. 29, 2005, after President Bush suspended federal regulations (to install trailers for Hurricane Katrina victims). Later, Colorado-based CH2M HILL received a $500 million contract to remove the trailers.” Call it what it is: a huge boondoggle, payoff and obscene profiteering that kicks taxpayers and shareholders in the teeth. A billion-dollar rip-off. Where did the money go? Spring Valley

San Diego Union Tribune After 3 years Bechtel ends Iraq projects By Michael Liedtke ASSOCIATED PRESS
November 2, 2006 "The government suspended work on the hospital last summer amid rising security expenses that drove the project's costs well above its original $50 million projection. AND "some critics who believed the company got the contract because of its deep political connections, particularly to the Republican Party."

Guess Who They Hired to Build the New Metro? By Marc Fisher Raw Fisher The Washington Post June 24, 2007 "Carnaggio says it's true that Virginia pushed Bechtel to lower its estimates...."

San Diego Union tribune Feds say work on Hanford plant to ramp up again within 30 days By Shannon Dininny ASSOCIATED PRESS August 14, 2007
"The one-of-a-kind plant is being designed as it's being built. Overall, design is about 80 percent complete, while construction is 30 percent done." AND "Last fall, the Energy Department announced that the cost to build the plant had risen to $12.2 billion."

WEEK IN REVIEW Washington Post July 29-Aug. 4 Sunday, August 5, 2007 "Costs to Rise for Metrorail to DullesPrice Will Increase Until Federal Review Is Done....The cost escalation is part of the terms of the contract between Virginia and airport officials and a private construction consortium headed by Bechtel Inc."

==================================Public Purpose Taken for a Ride: Parsons Brinckerhoff Expose By Tara Servatius

Global Analysis and Strategies An Environmental Justice Strategy for Urban Transportation By Eric Mann with Kikanza Ramsey, Barbara Lott-Holland, and Geoff Ray Moving the Movement for Transportation Justice ۰ Vol. 12 No. 1 ۰ Spring 2007

Cache Bechtel joined with Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Hall, and Macdonald, the New York engineering firm brought in by BAC to conduct initial studies, and Tudor Engineering of San Francisco, to capture the design and construction contract in a no-bid process.

"They are suing for more equitable funding, but the essential inequity of our current transportation system is built right into the infrastructure of our streets, highways, rails, and bridges by the business-first builders like Bechtel."

San Diego Union Tribune Watchdog: Iraqi government failing to maintain U.S.-funded reconstruction projects By Andrew Bridges ASSOCIATED Press July 29, 2007 "An audit found that about half the water, sanitation, power and other projects awarded to the San Francisco engineering company failed to meet their stated goals."

Las vegas Sun Lawsuit claims workers at nuke dump in Nevada hurt by toxic dust By KEN RITTER ASSOCIATED PRESS March 11, 2004 "Each named in the lawsuit has an office in Nevada."

Lawskills Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Quade & Douglas v. Johnson.(1982) "from October 1976" Toxic Dust.....

==================================South End Press Bechtel VS. Bolivia: The PEOPLE Win!! Volume 69 - January 19, 2006

WBZ Mihos Airs Big Dig 'Heads Up' Cartoon Ad by ML "Mihos has long complained about the escalating costs and was temporarily removed when he refused to approve a toll increase needed to defray project costs. Monday September 25, 2006

E Magaizine cache Road To Perdition Are Smog-Belching “Truck Tollways” a Congestion Solution? by Marcus RothIn Jul/Aug2005 "......addition to Halliburton, the STAR team boasts an impressive lineup.....in the Enron and WorldCom scandals.....and Randy DeLay, younger brother of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay."

GAP Government Accountability Project VIT Plant Problems "Department of Energy said that Bechtel did a good job of identifying and fixing problems but not a good job of preventing them from happening again.", April 28, 2006 And 60 minutes Rebuttle

===================================KNDO Bechtel's Forward Thinking Means No Hiring Rush before Vit Restart Aug 15, 2007

Bechtel's Forward Thinking Means No Hiring Rush before Vit Restart

Red Orbit Hanford Vit Plant Funding Restored "A Senate subcommittee has approved full funding of $690 million for Hanford's vitrification plant next year, but not without criticism of project supervisors." Wednesday, 28 June 2006, AND "But the first-of-a-kind project has run into problems in the past 18 months, including a need to increase the design standard for parts of the plant to withstand a potential severe earthquake."

Hanford Watch Mission Our mission is to educate the public on Hanford cleanup issues, and work to increase public participation in the Hanford decision making process.
Web links to Hanford Watch.....
Alliance for Nuclear Accountability
Atomic Farmgirl
Columbia Riverkeeper
Dept. Of Energy Hanford
Downwinders
Government. Accountability Project
Hanford Advisory Board
Hanford Community Health Project
Hanford Groundwater Remediation Project
Hanford Health Information Network
Heart of America Northwest
Inez Austin
Institute for Energy & Environmental Research
National Cancer Institute
National Nuclear Victims for Justice
National Nuclear Workers for Justice
Nevada Nuclear Waste Project
Nuke Info
Office of River Protection
Oregon Dept. of Energy
The RadioActivist Campaign
Tri-City Herald
Washington Dept. of Ecology