We have been following the never-ending scandals involving Chinese products and foods that have proven dangerous due to contamination or shoddy quality. That reputation did not however prevent California officials from hiring a Chinese firm with no experience with bridges to repair the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The Chinese firm underbid the competitors by an amazing $250 million and a promise finish the repairs in record time. If it sounds too good to be true, it was. The state has now spent millions repairing the shoddy repairs of Chinese company Zhenhua Port Machinery, which also caused delays through poor decision making.
The Sacramento Bee has detailed the problems including the decision of these state to hand over more money to the Shanghai-based company as a “speed incentive.” In the meantime, two engineers who worked on the project said that they were reassigned after voice concerns over the shoddy work. This included faulty tack welds, which hold in place steel parts in preparation for final welds. The tack welds cracked and the cracks often remained underneath the final welds.
It is curious that the contract would be awarded solely on the lowest bid when the company lacks experience in bridge repairs. It is equally bizarre that more money was paid to this company after failing to meet its promised performance.
China has firmly established a reputation for producing shoddy, contaminated goods. When companies or local governments award contracts to China, they will get shoddy work, and likely lawsuits and scandal, such as when bridges collapse.
China used to be renowned for poetry, delicate artisan craftsmanship, and beautiful architecture, among other things (such as Emperors and single minded obedience.) But Mao ended that era, the good and the bad.
Please remember who is in charge of the state of California. And these same people want to build a bullet-train. Governor Moonbeam did not get that name for nothing.
Albert Brooks wrote a futuristic novel titled, 2030. It is hilarious and thought provoking. One of the subplots involves the Chinese taking over our infrastructure after a massive Ca. earthquake.
The SF-Oakland Bay Bridge is a femoral artery for the Bay area. This incompetence caused years of traffic problems. But, few have read anything about it. The several days of traffic cones on the GWB. Well, it got national coverage for months along w/ a Federal investigation. Ever think we just might have our priorities all screwed up?
When the San Onofre nuclear generating station needed new steam generators, which are big but basically simple sheet and tube boilers, they had to have them made by Mitsubishi in Japan because no company in America had the capability of building them. They replaced American-made units which had been in service for thirty years, and they failed after less than three years in service. The end result was that San Onofre was permanently shut down, twenty years ahead of schedule.
“We are at a pivotal moment when it comes to maintaining and modernizing our nation’s infrastructure. Many of our roads, bridges, water systems, and our national electric grid were put into place over fifty years ago, and these systems are simply overwhelmed or worn out.” – President ASCE
Aviation=D, Bridges=C+, Dams=D, Drinking Water=D, Energy=D+, Hazardous Waste=D
Inland Waterways=D-, Levees=D-
Public Parks and Recreation=C-, Rail=C+, Roads=D
Schools=D, Solid Waste=B-
Transit=D, Wastewater=D, Ports=C,
America’s Infrastructure GPA=D+
Cost to Improve=$3.6 trillion
We don’t already have enough “junk” from China – now we allow our repair work to also be done by coolies of today, of course, the coolies DID do a lot of good building the railroads, and the opium dens, where else could we get those at such a bargain, and what about the “Chinese hand laundry”…yeah, I’m probably going to be outvoted on this too. Well, without “progress”, we’d never know how well off “we WERE”…
About 11% of our bridges are dangerous, our city underground plumbing is dilapidated, our oceans are filling with garbage, the air is filling with pollution, the drinking water constantly gets worse, and the climate is becoming more and more angry.
Meanwhile, the government and press lie about it.
The government prefers to spend infrastructure funds elsewhere (Inferior Structure).
The McTell News does not know or care where “elsewhere” is, so the general public does not know either.
Dredd, something stinks, I’d red flag this project.
Quick comparison on the Tappan Zee east coast bridge replacement project:
After more than a decade of delay, a New NY Bridge to replace the Tappan Zee is becoming a reality. The new bridge will be designed and constructed to last 100 years without major structural maintenance.
Under Governor Andrew Cuomo’s leadership and with the support of President Barack Obama and the federal government, the project has moved from dysfunction to construction.
The bridge is being designed and built by Tappan Zee Constructors, LLC (TZC), a consortium of some of the world’s best-known and most highly-regarded design,
engineering and construction firms, including Fluor, American Bridge, Granite, and Traylor Bros., along with key design firms HDR, Buckland & Taylor, URS, and GZA.
And just who were the contract managers that oversaw the award? A big portion of their job is to ensure the bidders can deliver as promised. No mention of their utter failure in the story….
Glen
Did China get information the old fashioned way, and then due a low ball bid?
The Justice Department filed criminal charges against five hackers in the Chinese military, accusing them of stealing American trade secrets through cyber-espionage.
The efforts were directed at six American victim companies: Westinghouse Electric, U.S. subsidiaries of SolarWorld AG, U.S. Steel, Allegheny Technologies and Alcoa. The United Steel Workers union was also targeted.
FBI Director James Comey said, “For too long, the Chinese government has blatantly sought to use cyber-espionage to obtain economic advantage for its state-owned industries.”
Is Governor Jerry Brown’s PC free of rootkits, malware and viruses?
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Compared to the military NSA all other hackers are amateurs (The Military NSA Can’t Hack My Car Nor Can AGW Make Us Extinct).
Thank you, sir
China bashing.
Was it the Chinese who let the infrastructure get into a massive and unprecedented state of disrepair?
Adults face up to their errors, or they continue in them.
Did China get information the old fashioned way, and then due a low ball bid?
The Justice Department filed criminal charges against five hackers in the Chinese military, accusing them of stealing American trade secrets through cyber-espionage.
The efforts were directed at six American victim companies: Westinghouse Electric, U.S. subsidiaries of SolarWorld AG, U.S. Steel, Allegheny Technologies and Alcoa. The United Steel Workers union was also targeted.
FBI Director James Comey said, “For too long, the Chinese government has blatantly sought to use cyber-espionage to obtain economic advantage for its state-owned industries.”
Is Governor Jerry Brown’s PC free of rootkits, malware and viruses?
My comment was swallowed up too.
“Americans don’t often appreciate the ramifications of the death of American manufacturing.”
You can thank Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.
“Our markets are flooded with crap from overseas, a lot of it made by child labor and under working conditions Americans would find appalling.”
That’s why there’s never been a more important time for labor unions. They should be looking for ways to organize foreign workers so they an bargain for fair wages and safe working conditions. Big business can organize, why shouldn’t labor.
Stop rewarding China for illegal, unethical, and immoral behavior.
You get what you pay for – seen it happen time after time – when will the idiots wake up? ?
American mfg & workers built the world and they can do it again is the idiots get out of the way
I think I had a comment eaten. Must have been my attempt to embed.
I’m sure the Chinese company, with it’s American employees, were very convincing on how they can do $1.00 worth of work for 75 cents. That’s what companies do. On the other hand, you have elected officials and ‘get me to retirement’ bureaucrats who are over their heads in complicated money and engineering matters making these contract decisions. Just look at Jefferson County, Alabama http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/11/10/366514/jefferson-county-bankruptcy-jp-morgan/ and Boston’s Big Dig http://www.boston.com/news/specials/big_dig_problems/ for examples. But can you imagine the citizen outcry, especially those on the right, if CA elected and bureaucratic accepted a contract that was $250 million higher than the lowest bid? And could they legally accept a bid that much higher? Seems to be a case of damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
Or if those embeds don’t work, take a look here: http://search.dilbert.com/search?w=vendor&view=list&filter=type%3Acomic&x=50&y=24
Jamie Dimon and RTC, I have located your comments and reposted them.
Americans don’t often appreciate the ramifications of the death of American manufacturing. Our markets are flooded with crap from overseas, a lot of it made by child labor and under working conditions Americans would find appalling. With the exception of automobiles and televisions, most of what Americans import is garbage, particularly electronics. The same holds true for imported labor. California thought they could save a few bucks by hiring an undependable but cheap contractor, a not terribly unusual circumstance. It backfired, also a not terribly unusual circumstance.
Consider this: if your vehicle was as unreliable as your cell phone or broke down as often as your computer would you even bother to have a car?
We are truly a colony of China. Some are so anxious to curry favor witht the Chinese that we will put humans at risk to do so. I can only hope that someone will go to jailmfornthis travesty but I won’t hold my breath.
It is time that American companies start repairing our infrastructure so that taxpayer dollars stay in the country and flow into the economy rather than flowing out to China.