Bechtel

Profile

Summary

Bechtel is a privately-owned construction company that was founded in 1906. It builds big projects like dams, roads, fossil fuel and nuclear power plants. In the 1930s, it was charged with 70,000 separate labor violations during the construction of the Hoover Dam. It has also been charged with installing the San Onofre nuclear reactor backwards and botching the clean up of the nuclear meltdown at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania. Bechtel was in charge of the Boston Central Artery tunnel project (aka the "Big Dig") estimated to be the most expensive highway project in U.S. history. (The $2.5 billion cost estimate ballooned to $24.3 billion.) The company’s contract to privatize the water system in Cochabamba, Bolivia, resulted in price hikes of up to 300 percent.

Products

Infrastructure, Mining & Metals, Nuclear, Security & Environmental, Oil, Gas & Chemicals

Violations

Top 5 Offense Groups (Groups Defined)Penalty TotalNumber of Records
government-contracting-related offenses$911,475,0004
employment-related offenses$19,169,1538
safety-related offenses$4,339,18520
environment-related offenses$10,0001

(May 24, 2021) 

Number of Records
33
Total Penalties
$934,993,338 (May 24, 2021)
Individual Records & Summaries
Click here for violation data on Bechtel
Information in this section is drawn from the Violation Tracker database produced by the Corporate Research Project of Good Jobs First in Washington DC. It is the most comprehensive source of data on business violations of laws and regulations in the United States. For specific examples of misconduct, please click on the links.

Stories

Article Archive

Leasing the Rain

Published by
The New Yorker
|
By
William Finnegan
|

n April of 2000, in the central plaza of the beautiful old Andean city of Cochabamba, Bolivia, the body of Víctor Hugo Daza lay on a makeshift bier. Daza, a seventeen-year-old student, had been shot in the face by the Army during protests sparked by an increase in local water rates.

Read more

Who Controls Ecuador's Water?

Published by
Latin America in Movement
|
By
Sara Grusky
|

It is a well kept secret that Bechtel won a contract to privatize the water in Ecuador\'s largest city, Guayaquil, just months after the massive citizen protests that threw Bechtel out of Bolivia.

Read more

S.F. Supervisors Turned Off by Water Contract

Published by
SF Gate
|
By
Edward Epstein
|

2000-07-20 04:00:00 PDT San Francisco -- A proposal to give a Bechtel-led group $45 million to oversee the multibillion-dollar rebuilding of San Francisco's water system was beaten down yesterday by a supervisors committee that refused to approve the deal without more information

Read more

Nuclear plant ends Bechtel contract

Published by
San Diego Union Tribune
|
By
Michael Burge
|

San Onofre's two nuclear reactors can generate 2,200 megawatts of electricity when operating at full power, enough to supply 1.4 million households.

•Southern California Edison owns 78 percent of the plant, SDG&E 20 percent and the city of Riverside 2 percent.

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Hoover Dam And The Rise Of The Multinationals

Published by
KNPR
|
By
Chris Sieroty
|

Bechtel Corporation is one of the largest closely held companies in this country.

It reported more than $37 billion of revenue in 2014, and it employs 55,000 people around the world.

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Bechtel to Get Richer in Post-War Iraq

Published by
an Jose Mercury News
|
By
Aaron Davis and Dana Hull
|

Bechtel raised the Bay Bridge and assembled the Hoover Dam. The San Francisco company extinguished the oil well fires in Kuwait and dug tunnels for the Bay Area Rapid Transit system. Its workers have laid 50,000 miles of pipeline and built 17,000 miles of roadway in 140 countries.

Read more
Videos & Podcasts
Bechtel takeover of the Bolivian water supply
War Pigs - Bechtel Protest

 

Activism

Recent & Ongoing Campaigns
SOAKING THE POOR: S.F.'s Bechtel wants the Bolivian people to pay for its bad water investment

Daniel Zull | Blue Planet Project | December 13, 2000

Last spring, thousands of residents of Cochabamba, Bolivia, seized control of the city's central plaza to protest a dramatic increase in their water bills, which by some accounts had doubled or even tripled. The protests triggered clashes across the country over a wide range of other ...

Major Investigations
& Lawsuits
$450 million settlement covers Big Dig tragedy

Associated Press | January 23, 2008

Contractors will pay more than $450 million to settle the state's lawsuit over a fatal tunnel collapse and to cover the costs of leaks and design flaws in the Big Dig, officials said Wednesday

Bechtel Surrenders in Bolivia Water Revolt Case

Earth Justice | January 19, 2006

Bechtel, one of the world’s largest corporations, reached agreement with the government of Bolivia today, dropping its controversial legal demand over the public water revolt that forced it out of Bolivia in April 2000.

Employment Practices
Dying Ex-NRC Inspector Sues Plant Where She Worked

Sally Streff Buzbee | Tulsa World | February 4, 2019

Rung Tang always believed she was perfectly safe working as a Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspector inside the San Onofre nuclear power plant. She thinks differently now. Tang is dying from a rare form of cancer at age 44. She is suing the plant's operators, contending she was exposed to leaking radiation.

Workers' leave revoked for protest day: leaked email

Helen Spelitis | Sunshine Coast Daily | August 10, 2015

GLADSTONE construction giant Bechtel has been accused of cancelling employee leave to stop workers joining a protest rally aimed at protecting Australian jobs.

Workers Blow Whistle At Midland Nuke Plant

David Stoll | Ann Arbor Sun | December 6, 1974

The Consumers Power nuclear plant at Midland, Michigan continues to be plagued by inadequate testing of the materials going into its construction, the SUN has learned from knowledgeable workers on the site.

Financials

Corporate Headquarters
12011 Sunset Hills Rd, Reston, VA 20190
Most Recent Gross Revenue
Privately Held
Most Recent Net Revenue
Privately Held
Stock Exchange Tickers
Privately Held
Subsidiaries

Note: Not a complete list.

Croctail Subsidiary Tool using the CorpWatch API - This API uses automated parsers to extract the subsidiary relationship information from Exhibit 21 of companies' 10-K filings with the SEC.

Major Shareholders

Privately Held.

Political Influence

OpenSecrets.org PAC Profile of Bechtel Group

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Open Secrets Logo
Subsidy Tracker
Subsidy Tracker
Subsidy Tracker is a project of Good Jobs First in Washington DC. It is the most comprehensive source of data on state and federal subsidies in the United States. For more details, click on the links.
Click here for details on subsidies received by Bechtel
Tax Havens
& Evasion
Six Rigged Rules Corporations Use to Dodge Taxes

Sarah Anderson and Scott Klinger | The Nation | April 16, 2012

As American families rush to complete their annual tax returns, many will have paid more in federal income taxes than some of America’s largest and most profitable corporations.

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