We received this anonymous letter which we normally would not run. However we felt it was necessary for clarification:
The Original BART Project:
“In charge of construction management, overall design of system facilities, equipment and monitoring of BART’s major contractors, were the District’s General Engineering consultants, Parsons-Brinkerhoff-Tudor-Bechtel, or most commonly known as “PB-T-B”; a joint venture enterprise formed to manage all technical, as well as construction aspects of the BART project. PB-T-B was comprised of three well known engineering consultant firms: Parsons-Brinckerhoff-Quade & Douglas, of New York (who had done the original BART transportation plan); Tudor Engineering Company, of San Francisco; and Bechtel Corporation, of San Francisco.”
BART extension to SFO:
“The BART-SFO Extension is nearing completion, with detailed corrections and systems testing being the final work to be performed by the contractor, Tutor-Saliba/Slattery.”
Chris Choi: Your article in The Skyline View 4/28/03 indicates that Bechtel was responsible for the 30 year BART project. Isn’t that stretching it?
Bechtel was involved in the original project in the 60’s and 70’s. Was Bechtel involved in the SFO extension? I did not find anything on the BART website to substantiate that. The above quotes are from BART’s website.
Editor’s Response:
Parsons Brinckerhoff, Tuder and Bechtel (PB-T-B) was retained in 1959 until 1976 as District Engineering Consultant. During this time the joint venture was providing BART with engineering service for system design, construction and research.
Studies for the BART-SFO project was initialized by the Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BARTD), along with San Francisco, San Mateo County and PB-T-B in April of 1970 and was funded by a federal grant received on July 1st of that year.
That study was concluded in 1972 and the San Francisco Airport Access Project report recommended linking BART to the San Francisco International Airport. However, it was not until April 24, 1980 that BART officially adopted the extension policy. This policy would extend BART Daly City to SFO. But it would then be another 8 years before BART negotiate a new contract with Bay Area Transit Consultants (BATC) for general engineering and construction management for the planned expansion. BATC consist of Bechtel, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Quade and Douglas, Don Todd Associates and John Warren and Associates.
Bechtel’s involvement with BART began in 1959 with the first stage five-county 123-mile system.
Throughout the years BART has relied on Bechtel (and other members of the joint ventures) for various projects, from original construction to seismic evaluation to seismic retrofitting to the expansion projects.
Yes, although there are other companies who were involved with these projects and are just as responsible for the over-budgeting and delays of various BART projects. Bechtel is the one that won the $680 million contract. Was it mentioned that Riley Bechtel is a member of Bush’s Export Council??
Tutor-Saliba/Slattery are construction contractors responsible for portions of the expansion project. BATC are the ones who are managing and therefore ??responsible?? for the entire project.
Cell Phone Safety Dear Editor-
I wanted to thank you for the story you did on cell phones. Someone finally addressed a very important issue. Cell phone safety in automobiles is minimal and I’m glad that people are starting to recognize that. With increasingly more powerful cars and so many electronic gadgets such as DVD players and Playstation 2s, it’s no wonder that our highways are becoming more dangerous. Your tips on how people should use their phone were extremely helpful; hopefully they’ll use them from now on.
-Sarah Hendricks