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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: NickSE who wrote (108412)	7/27/2003 7:26:52 PM
From: NickSE	Respond to of 281500

Bechtel busy refurbishing primary schools for fall semester by David R. Baker - 27 July 2003 sfgate.com .......Bechtel, the San Francisco firm that was awarded a $680 million contract to repair Iraq's infrastructure, built its reputation with grandiose engineering - - the Hoover Dam and the Bay Bridge, the Washington, D.C., subway and the Chunnel connecting England and France. But much of its work in Iraq will involve more mundane repairs. With the academic year fast approaching, the company has begun refurbishing schools -- the kind of hammer-and-nail work associated with Habitat for Humanity or PTA volunteers. When finished, each school will have windows, wiring, fresh plaster and paint on the walls, working bathrooms and fans to ease Iraq's brutal heat. The American administrators overseeing the rebuilding of Iraq hope that refurbished classrooms may give students and parents a sense that their lives are finally starting to improve. "You may think I'm making quite a thing about this," Fairfield says, waving a long arm at one of the water tanks. "But when you haven't had a working toilet in years, it makes quite a difference." Although Bechtel manages the Basra school project, 10 Iraqi firms do most of the work. At Al-Nijoom, about 25 men from the Alsabah General construction company swarm over the two-story building, located at the end of a cul-de-sac filled with fermenting garbage.......