User:M P at Bechtel/History

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History[edit]

Founding and early years[edit]

Bechtel's business activities began in 1898 when cattle farmer Warren A. Bechtel moved from Peabody, Kansas to the Oklahoma Territory to construct railroads with his own team of mules.[1][2] Bechtel moved his family frequently between construction sites around the western United States for the next several years, eventually moving to Oakland, California in 1904, where he worked as the superintendent on the Western Pacific Railroad.[1] In 1906, W. A. Bechtel won his first subcontract to build part of the Oroville-to-Oakland section of the Western Pacific Railroad.[1] That same year, he bought his own steam shovel, becoming a pioneer of the new technology.[3][4] He painted "W.A. Bechtel Co." on the side of the steam shovel, effectively establishing Bechtel as a company, though it was not yet incorporated.[2]

Bechtel completed work on a series of railroad contracts during the early 1900s, culminating in an extension of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad finished in 1914.[1]

Starting with the construction of Klamath River Highway in California in 1919, Bechtel ventured into jobs outside of building railroads. The company built roads, bridges, and highways throughout the western United States. The company worked on its first hydroelectric projects in the 1920s for Pacific Gas and Electric Company in California.[5][3][4]

By the time Bechtel incorporated in 1925, it was the leading construction company in the western United States.[6][1] In 1929, Warren's son, Stephen, urged his father to take on the company's first pipeline project. Bechtel began working with California Standard Oil Company to build pipelines and refineries.[5][7][8]

In January 1931, Bechtel joined other contractors in the west to form Six Companies, Inc., a consortium created to bid for a contract from the US government to construct the Hoover Dam. Six Companies won the bid in March and construction on the dam began in the summer of 1931.[3][2]

WWII, overseas expansion and the nuclear age[edit]

Warren Bechtel died unexpectedly in 1933 while in Moscow on business. He was succeeded by his son, Stephen Bechtel, Sr., who became both the head of Bechtel and chief executive of the Hoover Dam project. Under his leadership, the Hoover Dam was finished in 1935. The project was the largest of its kind in US history at the time and Bechtel's first megaproject.[9][4][8]

During World War II, the United States Maritime Commission invited the company to bid for a contract to build half of their order of 60 cargo ships. The company had no prior experience in shipbuilding, but bid for the entire 60 ships.[8][10] Between 1941 and 1945, Bechtel's wartime shipyards, including Marinship and Calship, built 560 vessels. Bechtel also worked on a pipeline from the Yukon to Alaska called Canol for the United States Department of War during this time period.[11]

Under Stephen Bechtel, Sr., the company diversified its projects and expanded its work into other countries. The company also focused on turnkey projects, a concept Stephen Bechtel, Sr. pioneered, in which Bechtel handled a project from planning and design through construction.[8][12][11]

Bechtel’s first job outside the US was building the Mene Grande pipeline in Venezuela in 1940. In 1947, Bechtel began construction on what was then the world's longest oil pipeline, the Trans-Arabian Pipeline, which began in Saudi Arabia, ran across Jordan and Syria, and ended in Lebanon.[10][8][13] The company continued to expand globally throughout the 1940s, particularly in the Middle East.[10][6]

In 1949, Bechtel began working with nuclear power after being contracted to build the Experimental Breeder Reactor I in Idaho. The company later built the Dresden Generating Station, the first commercial nuclear power plant, for Commonwealth Edison in Illinois in 1957.[14][5]

Other major projects in the 1950s included the Trans Mountain Pipeline in 1952, an oil pipeline in Canada, and a preliminary study for the English Channel in 1959.[5][11][15] Bechtel also began engineering work on the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system in 1959.[5][9]

Megaprojects era[edit]

Stephen D. Bechtel, Jr. took over for his father as president of the company as Stephen Bechtel, Sr. retired in 1960.[9][16][12] During the 1960s and 1970s, Bechtel was involved in constructing 40 percent of the nuclear plants in the United States.[16] In 1968, the company completed the largest nuclear plant in the US at the time, the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, in California.[1][17] In 1972, Bechtel was involved in approximately 20 percent of all of the United States' new power-generating capacity.[12] By the end of the decade, the company had moved from nuclear power construction toward nuclear cleanup projects, including Three Mile Island in 1979.[5][16]

Bechtel completed work on other megaprojects during the 1970s, including major airports in Saudi Arabia and the metro rail in Washington, D.C.[5][11] In 1976, the company began work on the industrial city of Jubail in Saudi Arabia. The company's multiple construction contracts helped to transform the area from a small village to a city with a population of over a quarter of a million people.[16][6]

In the 1980s, Bechtel handled the project management of the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics.[18] The company also built the Ankara-Gerede Motorway in Turkey as part of the network of roadways linking Europe and Asia in 1986.[19]

In 1987, Bechtel was awarded a contract for project management services of an undersea tunnel linking the UK and France called the Channel Tunnel or "Chunnel." The tunnel was completed in 1994.[1][20]

Increased business and visibility[edit]

The recession of the 1980s turned the company’s focus toward new areas of growth including environmental cleanup and alternative energy projects. [21][16]In 1989 Riley Bechtel was named president of the company.[9]

In 1991, Bechtel, in a joint venture with Parsons Brinckerhoff, broke ground on Boston's Central Artery/Tunnel Project or "Big Dig," a project the company had been in charge of since 1986.[22][23] The Big Dig was, at the time, the largest and most complex urban transportation project ever undertaken in the United States. The 20-year project was critiqued for rising costs and an increasing scope of work, as the Big Dig became more complex than was originally estimated. Criticism of the project increased in 2005 when a leak sprang in one of the new tunnels. In the summer of 2006, a faulty tunnel ceiling panel collapsed, killing a motorist.[22] Litigation ensued, and in January 2008, Bechtel settled with federal and state officials for $352 million with other contractors involved paying smaller amounts.[24]

As a result of the Gulf war, Bechtel took on the task of extinguishing oil well fires in Kuwait in 1991. This was part of the overall effort to rebuild the infrastructure of Kuwait.[9][16]

In 1994, Bechtel began work on the US$20 billion Hong Kong Airport Core Programme, which was the largest civil engineering project at the time and included a new airport and nine other infrastructure projects.[25][26] Bechtel's other major projects during the 1990s included the Athens Metro system,[8] the Atlantic LNG in Trinidad,[19] the Croatian Motorway,[27] the Jubilee Line Extension for the London Underground, Quezon Power Plant in the Philippines,[28] and a semiconductor plant in China.[29][30][31] Bechtel also managed design and construction of facilities for Olympic games: the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics,[18] and the Winter games in Nagano, Japan in 1998.[32] In the early 2000s, the company provided planning and management services for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.[18] In 2001, Bechtel was part of a consortium to project manage the US$4.3 billion construction of the CSPC Nanhai Petrochemicals Complex in China in 2001.[33]

Several projects in the 2000s attracted controversy.[34] In 2000, after a protest against water prices being raised by a utility partially owned by Bechtel in Bolivia, the company pulled out of the country and later filed suit against Bolivia for $25 million in losses. The claim was settled in 2006 for $0.30.[34][35]

In 2001, Bechtel began work on the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford site in Washington state.[36] The project is a highly complex plant for the treatment of radioactive liquid waste that has employed new technologies and construction techniques that are the first of their kind. As of 2013, it is considered the most complex project in the United States.[37][36] Management of the project has been the subject of controversy including Department of Energy's Inspector General reports and Government Accountability Office studies regarding rising costs, nuclear safety and quality, and whistleblower allegations. For example, in 2013 the DOE Inspector General concluded that "Bechtel determined that there was a systemic problem and a breakdown in controls over the review of design changes," but that the company had taken steps to correct the problems.[38][39]

In 2003, Bechtel won a $680 million contract to begin rebuilding infrastructure in Iraq for U.S. Agency for International Development. The contract led to the company being accused of both non-competitive bidding and war profiteering.[34] Bechtel won a competitively-bid second contract in January 2004,[40]and completed 97 of 99 task orders of the contract, returning the two remaining projects due to the escalating security concerns in the country.[41]

Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Bechtel was one of four companies hired by FEMA to build temporary housing.[22] Bechtel delivered over 35,000 trailers in under a year for displaced residents in Mississippi, though the company was criticized by officials and in the media for the cost and quality of work.[42]

In 2007, Bechtel began work on the Romanian A3 motorway (Autostrada Transilvania) and Albanian motorways. Bechtel and the Romanian National Roads Authority jointly agreed on a settlement to end the contract for works on the Autostrada Transilvania in 2013. The Albanian Motorway was opened to traffic in 2010 on schedule.[43][44]

Other major projects at the end of the 2000s included the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington state,[45] Jamnagar Refinery expansion in India,[46] Equatorial GuineaLNG,[47]and Oak Creek Power Plant in Wisconsin,[48]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Donald E. Wolf (2010). Big Dams and Other Dreams: The Six Companies Story. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 080614162X. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
  2. ^ a b c Michael Hiltzik (2011). Colossus: The Turbulent, Thrilling Saga of the Building of Hoover Dam. Free Press. ISBN 141653217X. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  3. ^ a b c Reinhardt Krause (September 14 2004). "He Built It -- And They Came; Be Diligent: Bechtel's hard work powered his drive to build the frontier". Investor's Business Daily. Retrieved 15 April 2014. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) Cite error: The named reference "Krause2004" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b c Robert Wright (October 3 1973). "Company, 75, Still Is Family-Owned; Director of Companies Corporate Profile: Family-Owned Bechtel Is a World Builder at the Age of 75 Steamshovel Pioneer". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 April 2014. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Jason Henderson (2011). "Chapter 45: Bechtel: The Global Corporation". In Stanley D. Brunn (ed.). Engineering Earth: The Impacts of Megaengineering Projects. Springer. pp. 783–801. ISBN 9048199190.
  6. ^ a b c Julie Pitta (August 1 2003). "Building a new world: Behind the scenes with Bechtel". World Trade. Retrieved 14 April 2014. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ David Streitfeld (April 3 2003). "Finalists for Rebuilding Down to 2 Firms". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 14 April 2014. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ a b c d e f George J. Church (December 7 1998). "Stephen Bechtel: Global Builder". Time. Retrieved 14 April 2014. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) Cite error: The named reference "Church1998" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  9. ^ a b c d e Seth Lubove (May 31 1999). "Modern pharaohs". Forbes. Retrieved 15 April 2014. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) Cite error: The named reference "Lubove1999" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  10. ^ a b c David R. Baker (May 4 2003). "Bechtel's roots in Mideast / Lucrative projects date back to WWII". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 15 April 2014. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) Cite error: The named reference "Baker2003" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  11. ^ a b c d Andrew Pollack (March 15 1989). "Stephen D. Bechtel Is Dead at 88; Led Major Construction Concern". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 April 2014. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) Cite error: The named reference "Pollack1989" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  12. ^ a b c "Bechtel Corp., Industry Partnership Award". Mining Engineering. November 1 1998. Retrieved 14 April 2014. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ M. S. Vassiliou (2009). The A to Z of the Petroleum Industry. Scarecrow Press. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  14. ^ Paul Menser (June 4 1999). "Bechtel, New Contractor at Idaho Lab, Has Strong Ties to Nuclear Industry". Knight Ridder. Retrieved 14 April 2014. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ Alexander L. Taylor III (July 12 1982). "The Master Builders from Bechtel". Time. Retrieved 14 April 2014. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ a b c d e f Matt Rothman (April 1 1991). "The rebuilding of Bechtel: Riley Bechtel has made peace with his past and taken on the family job of doing the undoable". California Business. Retrieved 14 April 2014. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ Leon Lindsay (July 7 1982). "Bechtel Group: training ground for Reagan Cabinet?". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 15 April 2014. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  18. ^ a b c "Bechtel team arrives to review Games plans". Deseret News. December 11, 1997. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  19. ^ a b Angus Hindley (March 20, 1998). "Continuity and change at the family firm". MEED. Retrieved 5 September 2014.
  20. ^ "Channel Tunnel, Strait of Dover, English Channel, United Kingdom". Railway-Technology. Retrieved 5 September 2014.
  21. ^ Thomas C. Hayes (July 28 1985). "Big Builders Learn to Think Small". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 April 2014. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  22. ^ a b c David R. Baker (July 19, 2006). "Big Dig tragedy could stain Bechtel's name / Delays, cost overruns, leaks and now a death in Boston puts spotlight on S.F. construction giant -- and some of its other mammoth projects". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  23. ^ Scott Bernard Nelson (21 February 2003). "Bechtel says report on overruns was unfair". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 25 September 2014.
  24. ^ David R. Baker (January 24, 2008). "Bechtel, partner settle Big Dig lawsuit". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
  25. ^ Maggie Farley (December 2, 1994). "Asia : Hong Kong's New Airport Finally Gets Off Ground". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
  26. ^ Peter G Rowe (2011). Emergent Architectural Territories in East Asian Cities. Walter de Gruyter. p. 84. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
  27. ^ John J. Kosowatz (August 26, 2002). "Croatia Tries to Unlock Economy With Multibillion-Dollar Motorway". Engineering News-Record. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  28. ^ "Quezon power plant soon to be operational". The Philippine Star. January 14, 2000. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  29. ^ Randolph E. Schmid (June 1 1998). "Massive public works projects featured at new exhibit". Associated Press. Retrieved 14 April 2014. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  30. ^ Richard Anderson (April 26 2011). "The private companies that drive the global economy". BBC. Retrieved 14 April 2014. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  31. ^ "Bechtel completes phase 1 of Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project". Railway-Technology. April 28, 2014. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  32. ^ David Armstrong (July 26, 2001). "Firms Vie For Olympic Gold / U.S. companies see opportunities as Beijing prepares for 2008 games". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
  33. ^ "CSPC Petrochemical Complex, China". Chemicals-Tehcnology. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  34. ^ a b c Aaron Davis and Dana Hull (March 28 2003). "Bechtel Target of Anti-War Protesters". Knight Ridder. Retrieved 14 April 2014. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  35. ^ "BOLIVIA: Bechtel Drops $50 Million Claim to Settle Bolivian Water Dispute". Environment News Service. January 19, 2006. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
  36. ^ a b Annette Cary (November 25, 2011). "Building technologies developed at Hanford vit plant". Tri-City Herald. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  37. ^ Scott Learn (March 16, 2013). "Sealed 'black cells' stall radioactive waste cleanup at Hanford nuclear reservation". The Oregonian. Retrieved 25 September 2014.
  38. ^ Mufston, Steven (3 October 2013). "Feds: Bechtel not doing safety checks at Hanford". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 24 January 2014.
  39. ^ LaFlure, Rebecca (18 November 2013). "Hanford nuclear site clean-up: The mess gets worse". The Center for Public Integrity/NBC News. Retrieved 24 January 2014.
  40. ^ Michael Janofsky (January 7 2004). "Bechtel Wins Its Second Big Contract for Iraq". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 April 2014. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  41. ^ Tom Sawyer and Andrew G. Wright (October 30 2006). "Bechtel Speaks About Work in a War Zone". Engineering News-Record. Retrieved 21 August 2014. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  42. ^ Jefferey Kaye (April 9 2007). "Controversy Continues over Post-Katrina Spending on Trailers". PBS. Retrieved 14 April 2014. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  43. ^ David Rogers (June 6, 2014). "Romania offers $450m to the contractor who'll finish its road to nowhere". Global Construction Review. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  44. ^ Benet Koleka (June 28, 2007). "Highway set to bring Albania and Kosovo closer". Reuters. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  45. ^ Rob Carson (July 15, 2007). "At last, it's good to go". The News Tribune. Retrieved 5 September 2014.
  46. ^ "Sohar Aluminium pours first hot metal". Gulf Industry Online. July 1, 2008. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  47. ^ "Equatorial Guinea LNG Project, Bioko Island, Punta Europa, Equatorial Guinea". Hydrocarbons-Technology. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  48. ^ Angela Neville, JD (October 1, 2010). "Top Plant: Oak Creek Power Plant, Elm Road Units 1 and 2, Milwaukee and Racine Counties, Wisconsin". Power Magazine. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
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