Free Republic

General Motors, America's largest automaker, and Bechtel, the country's largest construction company, are teaming up to build thousands of electric vehicle fast-charging stations across the United States. The two companies have agreed to create a new company that will build the charger network. Adding more fast charging stations should provide a boost to sales of electric cars. One of the biggest concerns Americans have about electric cars is whether there will be enough places to charge them, according to a recent survey by AAA. This network will not only help GM (GM), which plans to introduce 20 new electric vehicle...

In 2009, the U.S. Navy finally began construction of the first new type of aircraft carrier in nearly thirty-five years. Named after former president and naval aviator Gerald R. Ford, the USS Ford fully takes the nuclear supercarrier into the twenty-first century. The technological innovations built into the new ship, while causing the inevitable delays involved in building a first-in-class vessel, will keep the Navy’s unique fleet of super flattops the largest and most advanced in the world for the foreseeable future. USS Ford follows in the steps of the highly successful Nimitz-class carriers. Construction began in 2009 at Huntington...

Known as The Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve, the 10,600-acre park opens Monday, when 30,000 scouts are expected to visit for the quadrennial National Jamboree. The Summit will have more than 5 miles of zip lines, a whitewater-rafting circuit, a 120-foot tree house and a stadium for 85,000 people.

(AP) - ConocoPhillips said today it's submitted a proposal to develop an Alaskan pipeline to carry about four billion cubic feet of natural gas per day to the United States and Canada.

Bechtel Corp. went to Iraq three years ago to help rebuild a nation torn by war. Since then, 52 of its people have been killed and much of its work sabotaged as Iraq dissolved into insurgency and sectarian violence. Now Bechtel is leaving. The San Francisco engineering company's last government contract to rebuild power, water and sewage plants across Iraq expired on Tuesday. Some employees remain to finish the paperwork, but essentially, the company's job is done. Bechtel's contracts were part of an enormous U.S. effort to put Iraq back on its feet after decades of wars and sanctions. That...

This is the Christy Mihos commercial that has been in the news around Boston. Produced by Bill Hillsman of Northwoods Ads in MN it's caused quite a ruckus here in Massachusetts. The commercial depicts Independent candidate for Governor Christy Mihos asking Big Dig engineers and politicians why the Big Dig is billions of dollars over budget. The bechtel engineers and politicians do what they do best.

Attorney General Tom Reilly is seeking a special grand jury to grill more than a dozen key witnesses in the Big Dig manslaughter probe, moving swiftly after documents revealed widespread knowledge of ceiling problems in the tunnel where Milena Del Valle was killed, a law enforcment source said. The grand jury, expected to be convened Oct. 3, will hear evidence for six months as investigators seek criminal indictments against officials involved in construction of the I-90 Seaport Connector Tunnel. Several key officials have already retained lawyers, the source said. “Nothing we have seen to date takes us off the path...

American universities rank among the best in the world, but they also boast another, more dubious distinction: They are home to some of the world’s most radical academics. Last month, one of these select individuals, UC Berkeley professor Hatem Bazian, brought his hate-filled show to two extremist Islamic Centers in South Florida. Both of these institutions are in the process of building large-scale mosques in their respective cities. And, given that their guest had previously called for attacks on the United States, the question naturally arose: Were these institutions looking to make friends in the community or to start a holy war?Past...

Inspectors have found at least 60 faulty bolt fixtures that supported the ceiling of the Interstate 90 connector tunnel in the same section where concrete ceiling panels fell and crushed Milena Del Valle, state officials said yesterday. Though the tunnel passed at least one previous safety inspection, the faulty bolt fixtures -- which Turnpike Authority officials yesterday called ``suspect" and ``compromised" -- went unnoticed until the 38-year-old's death Monday night spurred an unprecedented criminal investigation of the Big Dig's safety. State officials were uncertain whether the faulty bolt fixtures found in the approximately 50 ceiling panels along 200 feet of...

Excerpt - LAS VEGAS (AP) - U.S. and British government scientists performed an underground nuclear experiment, short of a nuclear blast, Tuesday at the Nevada Test Site, the National Nuclear Security Administration said. Scientists for the first time posted a nearly eight minute video Web log of preparations for the subcritical experiment. The operation, dubbed "Krakatau," involved detonating high explosives around a radioactive material in a vault about 1,000 feet below ground at a remote part of the desert testing range. "This was the first time this much video was made available before the experiment," said Kevin Rohrer, a Nevada...

In a surprise finish to months of battle, the University of California prevailed yesterday in its bid to run Los Alamos National Laboratory, the storied weapons research center in the mountains of New Mexico and the birthplace of the atomic bomb. The university teamed with the Bechtel Corporation, the world's largest construction and engineering company, and two other industrial giants to win the contract. It is the first time the laboratory's management has been put up for bidding. Federal officials announced the winner in Washington yesterday. Most analysts expected that the contract would be wrenched away from the University of...

There is an arm of the Chinese government that has repeatedly aided the nuclear weapons programs of Pakistan and Iran. Now that arm is in line for a $5-billion loan deal from the U.S. government--for the benefit of two major U.S. corporations. The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im), an independent federal agency that finances exports, has granted a preliminary commitment for the largest deal in it is history: $5 billion in loans and loan guarantees to the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) to build nuclear power plants. According to U.S. government reports, CNNC has been tied to at...

Demolition of the old Carquinez Bridge will cost more than three times as much as the state estimated, the latest example of a huge Caltrans cost overrun on a Bay Area bridge project. A committee of the Bay Area Toll Authority reluctantly agreed Wednesday to allot $49.7 million for the demolition and removal of the original span of the bridge, a job that state engineers had said would cost $16 million. The 1927-vintage span, considered too fragile for seismic strengthening, was replaced in November 2003 by the Al Zampa Bridge.

June 19, 2004 It's a Dirty Job, but They Do It, Secretly, in IraqBy JAMES GLANZ AGHDAD, Iraq, June 18 — It was an engineering success on the order of stringing the first cables for the Brooklyn Bridge or coaxing the first glimmer of starlight through some giant telescope to unravel the structure of the universe. But when it occurred late last month, the achievement remained cloaked in absolute secrecy, marked only by a quiet celebration among participants who may remain forever unknown to history.Raw sewage was treated in Baghdad.The stream of treated water that eventually found its way into...

International War Profiteer ProtestFeb. 24: Stop the Corporate Invasion of Iraq! On February 24, protest Halliburton, Bechtel, and the other corporations that are making millions in Iraq, and speak out for Iraqi workers’ rights and self-determination.WHAT: International day of protest to end the corporate invasion of Iraq and support Iraqi workers’ rightsWHEN: Tuesday, February 24WHERE: In your city, at the offices of Halliburton, Bechtel, or another war profiteering company (see suggestions below)Click here to find protests in your area, or list you own:www.unitedforpeace.org/calendar.php?caltype=15Click here for a sample press release.Following on the heels of the military invasion of Iraq, another invasion began:...

In rehabilitating a crucial powerplant, Iraqi engineers are enhancing their skills and broadening their experience under the supervision of a U.S.-based contractor while strengthening their country’s generation base. But the Bechtel-led restoration project at Baghdad’s 640-Mw Daura Powerplant also highlights the difficulties Iraqi contractors face on restoration contracts and the dangers they confront in cooperating with the U.S. occupation. In November 2003, San Francisco-based Bechtel awarded Iraq’s United Co. the $1-million subcontract to provide labor to revamp two steam turbines at the four-unit Daura power station on the outskirts of Baghdad. Fawzi Elia, United’s project manager, explains that the company...

Bechtel National Inc. has been selected as contractor for Iraq Infrastructure II, a program to rehabilitate and repair Iraq's infrastructure, an official with the Agency for International Development said here today. Bechtel is teamed with Parsons of Pasadena, Calif., and Horne Engineering Services of Fairfax, Va., for the $1.8 billion contract. It will be implemented over 24 months in partnership with the Coalition Provisional Authority and in cooperation with Iraqi contractors, Gordon H. West, acting assistant administrator in AID's Asia and Near East Bureau told reporters in the Pentagon. This contract basically will follow the contract currently under way, officials...

In Iraq, school administrators are struggling to keep their classroom doors open and their students educated, in the face of many obstacles unleashed by the occupation of the country. Looting has become commonplace, while lack of supplies and the decay of basic infrastructure make teaching a challenge. Into this situation steps Bechtel Corporation, the San Francisco-based engineering and construction giant. In April Bechtel was awarded a contract by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for the reconstruction of Iraq's primary and secondary schools, as part of a deal worth up to $1.03 billion to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure. But the...

<p>BAGHDAD -- Some Iraqi construction companies say they are being shut of out reconstruction contracts by discriminatory practices and unreasonable standards.</p> <p>U.S. officials reject the charges and say much of the frustration is caused by a misunderstanding of the contractors' legal obligations.</p>

Port Open, Schools Renovated as Iraq Reconstruction Continues By K.L. VantranAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Oct. 31, 2003 – The work of Bechtel International Systems Inc., under contract with the U.S. Agency for International Development in support of the Coalition Provisional Authority's reconstruction effort in Iraq, is well under way. The Port of Umm Qasr can receive large grain-bearing ships. More than 1,200 schools were renovated in time for the new school year. The water and wastewater facilities at Baghdad and Basrah international airports have been updated. Three bridges – Khazir, Al Mat and Tikrit – are under re-construction....