At US base in Germany, a probe as building costs soar

[TexasLawyer]

Source: Christian Science Monitor

At US base in Germany, a probe as building costs soar

Pressed to house troops as bases closed, the Air Force fast-tracked construction.
By Mariah Blake | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

from the August 8, 2007 edition

Page 1 of 2

Hamburg, Germany - Nearly two years after it was supposed to be completed, the Pentagon's largest single-site construction project is languishing unfinished, due to shoddy workmanship, poor planning, flawed design, spiraling costs, and an ongoing fraud investigation.

The problems are so severe that neither the US Air Force – overseeing the project – nor the construction company it has partnered with can predict the final budget or completion date, according to the US Government Accountability Office (GAO).

"The project is in serious trouble, and there are no good solutions," says Gregory Kutz, the GAO's managing director of special investigations. "Sorting it out could take years, if it can be sorted out at all."

The problem is the unfinished Kaiserslautern community center, that's designed to house 844,000 square feet of shops and lodging. It is part of a $2 billion makeover of Kaiserslautern Military Community, the US military's largest overseas base and a key player in its global troop realignment plan.

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Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0808/p04s01-woeu.html

[unhappycamper]

1. Interesting.

At $4,000 per second for the occupation of Iraq,

$6,100,000 = 25.42 minutes (of the Iraq occupation)

$8,000,000 = 33.33 minutes (of the Iraq occupation)

$300,000 = 75 seconds (of the Iraq occupation)

:shrug:

[theNotoriousP.I.G.]

2. Not surprising at all

fast-track schedules and German construction companies are simply not compatible. They take FOREVER to complete anything when they are coordinated (their version of coordination) so with 30 different companies and subcontractors all poking along I'm not the least bit surprised it has turned into a fiasco.