Engineer Memoirs
Q:
Does it surprise you, with the unpredictable way in which the management evolved and
the economic requirements and so on, that the thing got finished on time?
A:
I must say that there was a lot of turbulence. But I'm not sure. I can't remember about
the various people in Israel whether there was some continuity, in spite of all this. I
mean, whether the resident engineers remained in place.
Q:
In fact, it was anything but continuous at the sites.
A:
I don't know that it surprises me. You certainly can't count continuity as one of the
strengths of the project and the reason they did so well. But evidently somebody was
doing something right. That's an interesting question that I've not thought about a great
deal. That is, where was the continuity that kept this thing on the track?
I'm really not sure. There was continuity in some of the major staff sections in Israel,
in NEPO [Near East Project Office], in Tel Aviv, but not a lot.
Q:
Jack Gilkey was there the whole time.
A:
He was there. Charlie Thomas was there almost the whole time. The procurement office
had several heads. Construction had a couple heads.
Q:
What about Bory Steinberg? Was he there pretty much the whole time?
A:
He did not stay past 1980. There was continuity at the deputy level in the area offices.
Maybe that's where we look for the stability. But when you look at it from the outside,
what you're struck by is not the stability, but the reverse of it. There are so many
changes involved. I was amazed, initially.
That goes on a lot in this world. I think it's a mixed bag. Sometimes you don't suffer
from it, and sometimes you do. You can see some projects that have really suffered
from a lack of continuity. This one does not seem to have.
Q:
Is there anything else I ought to ask you about the Israeli project
A:
I think you've covered the most important points. I think that the Corps showed its
capability to get on top of a job. You know, this thing was done on fast-track, in which
they let a cost-plus type of contract when a lot of the design is not completed. The
Corps had done a limited amount of that work. But they could not be called vastly
experienced in fast-track work. Yet, they managed to get on top of that and do that.
The proof of the pudding is what happened. They did get finished. And my recollection
is that they were pretty close on the cost estimate, too.
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