Posted on 07/09/2006 2:54:01 PM PDT by John Jorsett
Ricardo Ramirez seemed an unlikely success story: At 57, the former Marine Corps judo instructor had spent more than 20 years as a paving contractor and had little to show for it but a long string of lawsuits, business failures and bankruptcies.
Then, in 1998, the struggling businessman appeared to hit upon a way to make it in a new venture. Taking advantage of city and state programs designed to help minority-owned businesses, Ramirez started turning out low-priced, locally produced concrete for projects that included earthquake retrofit work on the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge. By 2003, his Pacific Cement venture was supplying a third of the concrete used in San Francisco's public works projects.
Prosecutors now believe it was an empire of sand.
Ramirez built Pacific Cement on a combination of moxie, deceit and greed, prosecutors say, only to have it crumble. Left behind, they say, was a costly and potentially dangerous legacy: tons of substandard concrete built into vital public structures.
Ramirez, now 65, faces charges of grand theft and fraud for allegedly passing off inferior recycled concrete -- a cheaper material that is more prone to wear, cracks and water penetration -- as meeting higher durability standards for the Golden Gate Bridge and a Burlingame wastewater treatment plant. He has pleaded not guilty.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Nope! Those few who "take" ordinarily end up in the federal prison at Petersburg, VA too. That way it's an easy trip for their families on "visitation weekends".
I work at a medium size airport in the mid west and seen many construction projects on the runways and taxiways. In each contract, when the work was finished but before it was accepted, a separate sub contractor would come out and drill core samples of the pavement put down to make sure it met specs.
Concur with Muawiyah. My organization (in the Marine Corps) requires many contracts. The contracting personnel do a lot of slug work that would numb your brain, but it is required by the Federal Acquisition Regulations. It is absolutely incredible on how much information a contractor has to send in to even be considered for a contract. And how much information has to be submitted for payment. If anyone shows even a hint of favoritism, it is investigated by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
Bingo. Where were the test cylinders with certified breaks from a testing lab?
Somebody check and see if he did any subcontract work for the Big Dig in Boston.
I remember a story out of South Korea, something about a bridge being built with inferior concrete - beach sand (salt) etc. It was a disaster.
It's been so long since I read the passage in a book, but when the great forts in Belgium fell one by one in WWI, the German engineers who inspected the reduced works claimed the concrete was fragile because the manufacturer adulterated it with dirt, or unwashed sand.
They were, in theory, quite formidable, but fell rather easily in practice. Due to cheap concrete.
Damn "whitey" just keeping everybody down!!! LOL! You can't make this stuff up. Blackbird.
My father, a retired aerospace engineer, went to Cozumel in 1989 to scuba dive. He watched the workers mix concrete using five gallon buckets and what appeared to be sea water as there were no hoses or water lines visible. Now we know why the buildings collapse during minor earthquakes.
"Tell you what, if government contracting officers and COTRs got as much bribe money as you bidders believe, everybody around DC would be living in a 25,000 sq ft minimansion, on 1/2 acre, with a pool, and 2 SUVs in the drive."
Kinda funny how the same companies always get the work isn't it?
As I said, its not necessarily corruption. Laziness has much to do with it. Its easier to stay with the people you know then to qualify new companies.
"....that included earthquake retrofit work on the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge. By 2003, his Pacific Cement venture was supplying a third of the concrete used in San Francisco's public works projects."
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Where are the core sample test results? This stuff should have been tested at each pour. The licensed Professional Engineers in charge of each of these projects should have their license revoked, then fine the hell out of them. They each defrauded the taxpayers as much as the concrete supplier did.
I always feel a little uncomfortable driving over a bridge ---- built by the lowest bidder.
The certifications are still at Kinko's.
1. You must be responsive ~ not only do you have to actually make the bid in writing (not just on a phone call to your buddy), you must respond to the bid. If the government wants jeeps you can't offer to sell them ink pens. If this didn't happen all the time I wouldn't mention it.
2. You must be responsible ~ that is, you have to be able to deliver the goods, or the service. Just another way of saying that it helps to be in the business you say you're in.
3. Meet the deadline for responding.
Successful bidders usually have someone in charge of making sure they meet these three simple standards. An amazingly large number of bidders manage to miss deadlines, be in the business to deliver the goods or services they are bidding to provide, or explain how they are going to meet the contract requirements.
All those other rules, standards and procedures affecting federal government contracting have been designed to thwart theft, fraud, abuse, misuse, subversion, exversion, conversion, and aggravated mopery.
As long as you aren't already in jail it's pretty hard for any ordinary businessman to fail to meet all but the top three standards I discuss above.
When you violate any one of the top three standards, your bid will not be opened.
He needs to contact the White House.
Back in a former life, I did materials testing for road construction. This should have been an issue THEN, WHEN THE TEST CYLINDERS FAILED.
Who was the guy in the DOT that looked the other way? He's just as guilty.
And, you must be able to bond the job as well. Some insurance company is going to foot the bill for this. If a bond was not required, then the rot goes a lot deeper than the concrete.
It's more than slump tests in Mo. If the concrete supplier has a contract to supply for a State or Fed job, the concrete batch plant has to be certified by a licensed indendent company and observed by the DOT district representative. They also test the materials (sand, rock, cement and admixes) that are part of the formula. If this were to happen in Mo, the only person to point at would be the plant operator who would obviously have cheated the mix after the state certification of the plant. Essentially dialing down the amount of cement in the mix as that is the most expensive component of concrete.
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