[originally posted to uk.railway]
[x-posted to uk.transport.london]

On 22 Feb, 20:54, " wrote:
The main contract for London's £16bn Crossrail project is set to be
awarded to a US engineering firm, according to an industry expert.

Alex Hawkes from Construction News told BBC 5 Live that Bechtel will
work on the tunnel connecting east London to Heathrow airport.

More at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7904355.stm

Not really a surprise. I remember hearing Ken Livingstone on the radio
when he was Mayor talking about the Crossrail project - he spoke about
how he had a particular company in mind to build it, one with a proven
competence. Obviously the choice of contractor for this major project
was a somewhat more complicated process than the Mayor just picking
one after looking at their brochures, but Crossrail is now a wholly
TfL managed project, and Ken was - and Boris is - also Chair of TfL,
so the Mayor does have an important role to play.

Anyway, the but about proven competence (or some such similar words)
immediately led me to think of those behind building the CTRL (aka
HS1) - despite all the other issues surround this controversial link
it was nonetheless delivered both on time and on budget (both sections
1 and 2). It was built by the Rail Link Engineering (RLE) consortium,
which was 52% owned by Bechtel, other owners being Arup, Halcrow and
Systra.

Bechtel were also brought in to 'save' the over-running Jubilee Line
Extension project and ensure it all opened in time for the Millennium
(i.e. year 2000), which they did.

In message
,
Mizter T writes
Bechtel were also brought in to 'save' the over-running Jubilee Line
Extension project and ensure it all opened in time for the Millennium
(i.e. year 2000), which they did.
Didn't they do that by just reverting to normal block working instead of
the moving block that was being experimented with?
--
Clive

"Clive" wrote
Bechtel were also brought in to 'save' the over-running Jubilee Line
Didn't they do that by just reverting to normal block working
instead of the moving block that was being experimented with?

It was much more than that.
Granted the signalling was the biggest cockup - but the whole project had
fallen apart.

In the transport business, Bechtel often seem to be the only company to have
invested in Microsoft Project!

An investment that has repaid them many, many times!

Mind you, I have a niggling feeling that they were associated with at least
one catastrophe of their own - but I can't fix the memory.
--

Andrew

"She plays the tuba.
It is the only instrument capable
of imitating a distress call."

On Feb 25, 1:20*pm, "Andrew Heenan" wrote:
Bechtel were also brought in to 'save' the over-running Jubilee Line
Didn't they do that by just reverting to normal block working
instead of *the moving block that was being experimented with?

It was much more than that.
Granted the signalling was the biggest cockup - but the whole project had
fallen apart.

In the transport business, Bechtel often seem to be the only company to have
invested in Microsoft Project!

An investment that has repaid them many, many times!

Mind you, I have a niggling feeling that they were associated with at least
one catastrophe of their own - but I can't fix the memory.

WCML electrification, Christmas 2007. "oops, we have half as many
electrical engineers turned up as we thought we'd ordered"

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org

wrote in message...
Mind you, I have a niggling feeling that they were associated with
at least one catastrophe of their own - but I can't fix the memory.

WCML electrification, Christmas 2007. "oops, we have half as
many electrical engineers turned up as we thought we'd ordered"

Give that man a peanut!
Thanks for that - it's annoying when I forget disasters!
--

Andrew

Interviewer: Tonight I'm interviewing that famous nurse, Florence
Nightingale
Tommy Cooper (dressed as a nurse): Sir Florence Nightingale
Interviewer: *Sir* Florence Nightingale?
Tommy Cooper: I'm a Night Nurse

Campaign For The Real Tommy Cooper

On Feb 25, 5:53*pm, "Andrew Heenan" wrote:
wrote in message...
Mind you, I have a niggling feeling that they were associated with
at least one catastrophe of their own - but I can't fix the memory.
WCML electrification, Christmas 2007. "oops, we have half as
many electrical engineers turned up as we thought we'd ordered"

Give that man a peanut!
Thanks for that - it's annoying when I forget disasters!

But that wasn't a project cockup, it was only a single incident in
part of a much bigger project. I'm not sure how much you can blame the
project managers for staff not turning up when they should have. If
the project hadn't been in such a bad state when Bechtel took over,
the delay in the electrification work wouldn't have been such a
problem, as there would have been plenty of leeway in the times.

Have the been any complete projects in the UK where Bechtel have made
a real mess of it?

In message
, at
12:22:16 on Wed, 25 Feb 2009, remarked:
WCML electrification, Christmas 2007. "oops, we have half as
many electrical engineers turned up as we thought we'd ordered"

Give that man a peanut!
Thanks for that - it's annoying when I forget disasters!

But that wasn't a project cockup, it was only a single incident in
part of a much bigger project. I'm not sure how much you can blame the
project managers for staff not turning up when they should have.

Because it was alleged that the "not turning up" was because the
engineers had been double booked, not just because they all decided to
take the same couple of weeks off sick.
--
Roland Perry

On Feb 25, 8:49*pm, Roland Perry wrote:
In message
, at
12:22:16 on Wed, 25 Feb 2009, remarked:

WCML electrification, Christmas 2007. "oops, we have half as
many electrical engineers turned up as we thought we'd ordered"

Give that man a peanut!
Thanks for that - it's annoying when I forget disasters!

But that wasn't a project cockup, it was only a single incident in
part of a much bigger project. I'm not sure how much you can blame the
project managers for staff not turning up when they should have.

Because it was alleged that the "not turning up" was because the
engineers had been double booked, not just because they all decided to
take the same couple of weeks off sick.

Yes, but any double booking would have been by the agencies supplying
the staff, not by the project managers. Sure more checks (that the
agencies arn't lying) can always been made, but then you get into DfT
style micromanagement.

In message
, at
13:35:32 on Wed, 25 Feb 2009, remarked:
WCML electrification, Christmas 2007. "oops, we have half as
many electrical engineers turned up as we thought we'd ordered"

Give that man a peanut!
Thanks for that - it's annoying when I forget disasters!

But that wasn't a project cockup, it was only a single incident in
part of a much bigger project. I'm not sure how much you can blame the
project managers for staff not turning up when they should have.

Because it was alleged that the "not turning up" was because the
engineers had been double booked, not just because they all decided to
take the same couple of weeks off sick.

Yes, but any double booking would have been by the agencies supplying
the staff, not by the project managers. Sure more checks (that the
agencies arn't lying) can always been made, but then you get into DfT
style micromanagement.

Are you sure that it's an agency that's culpable? What sort of agency
does that if faced with penalty payments for non-performance, and why
would they think they'll ever get work again after a stunt like that?

--
Roland Perry

On Feb 25, 10:14*pm, Roland Perry wrote:
In message
, at
13:35:32 on Wed, 25 Feb 2009, remarked:





WCML electrification, Christmas 2007. "oops, we have half as
many electrical engineers turned up as we thought we'd ordered"

Give that man a peanut!
Thanks for that - it's annoying when I forget disasters!

But that wasn't a project cockup, it was only a single incident in
part of a much bigger project. I'm not sure how much you can blame the
project managers for staff not turning up when they should have.

Because it was alleged that the "not turning up" was because the
engineers had been double booked, not just because they all decided to
take the same couple of weeks off sick.

Yes, but any double booking would have been by the agencies supplying
the staff, not by the project managers. Sure more checks (that the
agencies arn't lying) can always been made, but then you get into DfT
style micromanagement.

Are you sure that it's an agency that's culpable? What sort of agency
does that if faced with penalty payments for non-performance, and why
would they think they'll ever get work again after a stunt like that?


I'd be very surprised if the project management company had all the
individual details of the staff that would be needed, that's what the
agencies are for. Of course blame will lie with the workers who are
down to work in two places at once (if that is the case) and who have
got the jobs from different agencies. But I don't see how any project
management company can take ALL the blame. My original point is that
the problem with the workers was one occasion of a much bigger
project, if there is something fundamentally wrong with staffing
supply, then why didn't happen much more often?