[IP] Cost Overruns Blamed on Power Surges
Begin forwarded message:
From: Carl Malamud <carl@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: December 9, 2006 11:52:45 PM GMT+09:00
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Cost Overruns Blamed on Power Surges
Dave -
The NY Times has an in-depth article on (yet another) government
procurement gone awry. In this case, the Coast Guard convinced
Congress to allocate funds for a much-needed fleet upgrade. But
instead of using the Coast Guard staff to oversee the upgrade,
the entire job was simply outsourced and the results are predictable.
Particularly interesting is the explanation for why upgraded
cutters have little problems like cracks in the hull:
Giant steel straps that looked like Band-Aids were affixed to the
side of the boats, and the vessels were barred from venturing out
in rough water. But cracks and bulges continued to scar the
Matagorda and other converted ships, followed by a series of
mechanical problems.
Bollinger, it turned out, had overestimated how much stress the
modified boats could handle, a miscalculation it cannot fully
explain. "The computer broke for some reason," said T. R. Hamlin,
a senior Bollinger manager. "Whether it was a power surge or
something, who knows?" The cursory oversight by the Coast Guard
meant the mistake was not caught in time.
Full article is here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/09/us/09ship.html
Carl
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