When it rains it pours ... for CH2M Hill

More bad press for Toowoomba Water Futures contractor, CH2M Hill, with allegations of shoddy work and ballooning costs on another project.

"DWP workers, regional air regulators and independent subcontractors alleged that the Colorado-based mega-firm has profited from its own shoddy work in irrigating the dry lakebed to reduce dust. As both engineer and construction manager on the six-year project, Ch2M Hill has been paid over $100 million for designing the project, then overseeing changes when their designs failed. Which, employees say, has been often."

"Harasick told the board that the DWP has spent $304 million thus far, of which $120 million is earmarked for Ch2M Hill. The contract began as a $550,000 sole-source consulting contract, he said. It soon rose to $12 million in 1998, then jumped to $13.9 million in 2001. Later that year, the DWP put out a bid for project design and construction management through 2007, Harasick said. Ch2M Hill was the low bidder, he said, adding that the board at the time approved amending the contract as it developed, to avoid paying a lump sum. That forced the council to approve a pair of retroactive amendments in 2002 and 2003, and a third one in 2004, according to the CAO’s 2004 report. 'So we didn’t know where we were going,' Patsaouras broke in, 'but we were going to take Ch2M Hill along for the ride. What a ride it has been.'"

One interesting comment is "the science [of reducing dust pollution] was uncertain and incomplete." Remind you of another science which Toowoomba is about to embark on?

See - LA Weekly article.