The “study” (which TysonsTunnel.org takes to task in this letter) that Governor Kaine had done that perfunctorily dismissed the TysonsTunnel.org study was done by Carter & Burgess, an engineering company with an incredible conflict of interest. The DC Examiner has the scoop:
As if all this were not bad enough, Examiner reporter William Flook recently discovered another conflict of interest in a project replete with them. MWAA paid Carter & Burgess, a supposedly independent Texas consulting firm, $200,000 to review a tunnel study done by three engineering firms for TysonsTunnel.org. The study claimed digging under Tysons Corner is both feasible and cost-effective. C&B dismissed the TysonsTunnel.org study, saying it left out critical information.
Turns out MWAA left out a critical bit of information, too. Even as it slammed the TysonsTunnel.org study, Carter & Burgess was courting MWAA for a big management consulting contract on the Dulles Corridor project. That means the Texas firm was hardly the objective outsider the public was led to believe it was. Perhaps this shouldn’t surprise, however, since MWAA is also considering allowing Dulles Transit Partners (DTP) — a consortium that includes the Bechtel Corp., late of Boston “Big Dig” infamy — to negotiate costs along the way instead of submitting a fixed price upfront. That’s like trusting an active alcoholic to keep his own bar tab.
Remember through all these pathetic lies, conflicts of interest, and corruption, there is a company, Dragados, who has submitted a fixed-price, fixed-time bid to do the tunnel for $200 million less and 6 months faster than Bechtel’s sole source, no-bid, state-secret contract. That’s guaranteed by contract by a company that is one of the stocks that makes up Spain’s version of the Dow (IBEX-35) and that has a market cap of 4.4 billion euros. They’re also a member of the S&P 350–Europe’s S&P 500–and are ranked #3 by Business Week on a list of the best performers of the S&P 350. They’re not sinking money down a hole when they guarantee this. They will back this contract up. They have to.
