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Construction Contracts
On 6 December, as a result of the host nation implementation plan that had
been signed a month earlier, the contract for life support area construction was
turned over to the Saudi Arabian government. By then, the contractor had
completed 84 percent of the work for sites B, C, D, E, and F, but site A was
only 45 percent complete. The Saudis turned over the completed life support
areas B, C, D, E, and F to U.S. forces in mid-March, weeks after the war had
ended. Although the original contract stipulated that the life support areas be
completed in mid-January, the contractor did not complete life support area A
until the end of April.13
Schwarzkopf's objections to spending large sums on life support areas were
to some extent vindicated. The ground war ended so quickly and the life
support areas took so long to complete that they were never used for the
purpose intended. American soldiers never occupied them because by the time
the camps were completed, the soldiers had moved into the forward areas.
Although critics complained that the United States received little but
leveled-out sand for its million, others disagreed. Corps contract specialist
Kay Bauer noted that the Corps did not have the normal 60 to 70 days to work
out the arrangements, and the cost of doing business was higher in Saudi Arabia
than in the United States. Competition determined price, she explained, and
"we got what we reasonably could have expected to get." Mobilizing workers
and equipment was expensive, and the contractor had a short performance time
of 90 days.
Also, much of the contractor's work was not readily apparent, such as the
installation of tanks and sewers. The cement-block dining facilities had air
conditioning and reinforced slabs. The contractor had had to establish work
camps, air-conditioned supply trailers, and office work space. He had brought
Grader spreads marl at a life support area.
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