By Timothy S. Killen

It was one year ago in January that I received the news - Bechtel won the Phase II USAID contract for Infrastructure Improvement in Iraq. I was home at the time, and it was my wife who heard the news first through a phone message. I immediately checked e-mail and indeed, there it was…a note advising the successful award, and a request for my immediate deployment to Baghdad.

Although we, the family, knew this may be a possible assignment, the news was nevertheless a shock--to friends especially, who expected my imminent retirement after 35 years with Bechtel. I remember the typical question…why are you doing this? And I also remember my struggle to answer adequately. As I reflect now on the decision to accept this assignment, I believe there were several factors involved:

• Desire to work again on a project (my last project assignment was in the 70's).
• Interest in working on power plants again (this is where I started my career in Bechtel).
• And finally, interest in a final Bechtel project adventure.

What a wonderful adventure it turned out to be!

I remember arriving the first time at the Bechtel Camp in Baghdad. Located in the Green Zone close to the Main Palace (later converted to the US Embassy Annex), it was situated among tall and beautiful date trees and green grass. I expected a desert environment, and was surprised by the greenery. The camp included an array of pre-fabricated trailers, some for living quarters and others combined into office facilities. We were self-sufficient with laundry, kitchen, dining hall, meeting rooms, recreation room, gym, diesel generators, and telecommunication/satellite facilities.

Security protection was immediately evident with enclosing fences, concrete barriers, and entry gates manned by armed guards. The camp was a comfortable island of protection, albeit occasionally interrupted by the sounds of artillery, rockets, and car bombs. Baghdad was a key location for the Bechtel workforce in Iraq, however several other camps were located at project sites around the country.

Our operations were affected significantly by the security environment. Each morning we were provided a security intelligence update and the "rules of the day". These rules may restrict movement outside the camp, trips to jobsites, wearing of protective gear, etc. Nevertheless, any travel on the roads within or beyond Baghdad was a planned, reviewed, and approved event involving armed security guards, multiple armored vehicles, and good radio communications. Because of these difficult travel restrictions, we were continually working on ways of covering jobsite supervision by "remote control".

Our Phase II project was called IIRP2 (Iraq Infrastructure Rehabilitation Project) and mainly included work scope for a number of power and water projects (about 24 individual projects). Projects ranged in size and type. The larger power projects were about $120 to $500 million in scope. Other, smaller rehabilitation projects ranged in size from $10 to $50 million in scope. The larger projects were primarily new design and construction, while smaller projects involved refurbishment of existing plants.

The condition of existing plants was appalling. Years of neglect, looting, lack of maintenance, and no spare parts affected the operation's status. Those plants or units that could operate were at a small fraction of their nameplate capability, being held together with improvised band aids. It was very difficult to assess the total scope of work required to refurbish these units. Whenever a turbine, generator, or other piece of equipment was disassembled, we would find new problems, deficiencies, degradation, and missing or broken pieces.

The schedule and cost of refurbishment was continually adjusted to account for these new findings. Meanwhile, electricity in Baghdad was available only a fraction of the day and night, being cycled by the Ministry of Electricity to match load with generation availability. The degraded power and water availability increased pressure to fix and finish these plants as soon as possible.

Access to computer and telecommunications technology was critical to the success of this project. Surprisingly, we were well equipped with the Bechtel standard e-mail, business applications, internet access, and office equipment. Our bandwidth connection to the Bechtel network and to the rest of the world (via satellite) was very robust. Indeed, the desktop PC in a trailer in Baghdad behaved much like any Bechtel workstation located in a major US office. Our work processes and products were electronic. Also with USAID, our client, the communication medium was all electronic. E-mail distribution of deliverables was normal, with the expected Word, spreadsheet, PowerPoint, and schedule attachments. These attachments were typically in Adobe.pdf format for transmitting among the parties. These documents were also accommodated in the standard Bechtel electronic document management system.

The technology was critical from another aspect, work sharing and collaboration among many locations. Our project offices were dispersed among Iraq (multiple camp site locations), Jordan, Kuwait, Oak Ridge, Tyson's Corner, VA, and Frederick, MD. Any serious engineering design work was performed by our design group in Frederick. Procurement and contracting was in northern Virginia, Kuwait, and Jordan. The network interconnection provided the close interaction and collaboration between the Iraq project teams and the associated offsite functional design and procurement teams.

While the Bechtel and USAID teams were enveloped in electronic data and interaction, the associated contact with Iraqi ministries was mainly paper-based. Ministry access to computers and networks continually improved, but lagged far behind the American technology. I met very few Iraqis with any PC exposure, and keyboard experience was nil. Nevertheless, we equipped all the Iraqi engineers working with us with the common e-mail, office applications, and network access. They were eager to learn and welcomed the chance to gain the experience.

As the travel to jobsites became more difficult, we became more reliant on locally-hired Iraqi engineers to be the "eyes and ears" at the jobsites. Bechtel set up extensive training programs in Iraq to acquaint these Iraqi engineers with our work processes for safety, contract management, and construction techniques. With daily coordination between the Iraqis at site and Bechtel management in Baghdad camp, this became the normal operating mode for continuing project progress.

Also, the difficult security environment forced us to continually assess whether portions of project work could be accomplished offsite from Iraq. This resulted in some shifting of expatriate workforce out of Iraq to Kuwait, Jordan, or Frederick, MD, and enabled a reduction in work force exposure. Note again that the technology underpinning enabled our splitting of the work among different offices.

This past year in Baghdad has been one of the most rewarding in my career at Bechtel. It certainly provided the "adventure" that initially drew me to this assignment. It was hard work and a grueling schedule (12 hours per day seven days a week), but it provided a great sense of accomplishment and learning experience that makes it all worthwhile. We could see the critical need for our help in improving the infrastructure, and each day we were able to make some improvement, with the hope of making significant adjustments in the overall living conditions for the Iraqi people. It was slower progress than we would have liked, but we were making the best of the situation facing us.

I would like to end with an unexpected adventure--that of getting to and from Baghdad from out of the country. Fortunately, we were provided periodic two-week R&Rs which were greatly appreciated. The trips in and out were quite an ordeal, owing to security issues on the road to, and flying into Baghdad International Airport.

After overnighting in sleeping bags in military tents near the airport, we were bussed to the "point of departure" to catch the RAF or USAF military flights on C-130s. Donned in our armor, vest and helmet, we would crowd into very uncomfortable net seats that lined the cabin. We were offered earplugs which were strongly recommended by the flight crew. Finally we were off the ground headed for Kuwait. The C130s would give us a thrilling ride out of the airport in a steep upward (or downward) spiral. Nevertheless, we were thankful to be with the military, given the conditions at the airport.

About the author: Tim Killen, before his retirement, served Bechtel as Chief Plant Design Engineer and Engineering Manager, and Principal VP and Manager of EPC Systems. In his work in Baghdad he was Engineering Manager on the Iraq Infrastructure Rehabilitation Project. Killen can be reached at tkillen@killenwood.com.

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