Word: contractor
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...teamed up with Manu-Mine Research & Development Co. (initial capitalization: $4,300) in a plan to defraud the commission of turnpike construction funds. With then-Turnpike Commission Chairman Thomas J. Evans' nephew, Charles Stickler, as president, Manu-Mine had cozily acted as the commission's consultant, contractor (without competitive bidding) and official inspector of its own work, received an "exorbitant" $7,000,000 (of the total $19.5 million in contracts) for drilling useless holes to fill abandoned coal mines with sand and gravel along the turnpike's right of way. Prosperous little Manu-Mine...
Wheelbarrow to Millionaire. The magnitude of modern road building and the steadily rising cost of new equipment (up nearly 70% since 1947) have made it harder for the smaller contractor to survive. Says Talbot Bailey, vice president of Oakland's Fredrickson & Watson Construction Co.: "There used to be a time when you could just take a wheelbarrow and start out in this business-and work up to be a millionaire. Those days are gone forever. You need a lot of capital today." In the '30s a mile of concrete road could be laid...
Despite their drain on the contractor's pocket, the machines that cost as much as $100,000 apiece save plenty of money in the long run. Contractors can get 66% more work with the same labor force as only nine years ago. Today's machine operator is a specialist who may make up to $15,000 a year, and it costs little more to have him operate a larger machine that can do more work. Since the average machine pays for itself long before wearing out, contractors figure they can afford $30,000 in new equipment to eliminate...
...equipment buying, deal with a welter of conflicting and often obsolete state regulations. Road building has always been blighted by graft, ranging from political kickbacks for contracts to small bribes to persuade local police to let the huge machines move over restricted roads to their job sites. Says Pittsburgh Contractor Max Harrison: "When I started out in this business in 1923 everyone connected with it was a crook." While the crooks have become fewer as more and more contracts have been let by competitive bidding, graft and political jobs for incompetents are sure to plague the federal highway program. Road...
...biggest problem facing both manufacturer and contractor is impatience. The superhighway program requires many months of preparation-planning, surveying, contracting, acquiring rights of way-before big-scale work can begin. While the states must pass legislation for the 10% of the cost they will raise, many of them have not yet made arrangements to participate in the program. Contracts have so far been let for only 1,000 of the 41,000 projected miles, and only 200 miles have been completed. Though Federal Highway Administrator Bertram D. Tallamy says the program is proceeding on schedule, equipment manufacturers and contractors find...