European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 10, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                July 2007 stars and stripes Page 3 the million White elephant Ramstein mall hotel project in limbo with serious problems and few easy solutions by Scott Schonauer stars and stripes Ramstein air Germany when German and american military officials broke ground for the mall and hotel com plex at this they pointed to the project As an example of their once envisioned As the Crown jewel of the air forces plan to revamp its largest base in the Kaiserslautern Mili tary Community Center has now been called a million White More than years after construction congressional investigators and auditors report the military largest sin Gle construction project is beset by poor co insufficient Over fraud shoddy faulty design and contractor work stoppage the project is More than a year behind it is expected to Cost millions More than contracted and no completion Date is in americans stationed in the area have known for months about some of the prob lems and the but new details that have emerged expose troubles much worse than initially revealed the fallout could affect welfare and recreation programs and military construction at bases beyond Kaiserslautern and across there is plenty of blame going around As work on some parts of the site has ground to a air Force officials fault German govern ment construction Landes Betriex  for not hiring a general contractor and mismanaging the project design and lab Points the Finger at the military insistence on putting the project on a fast track schedule doomed from the begin and general accountability office investigators hold both responsible for mis takes leading to schedule and Cost prob the severity of the situation caught the attention of Washington lawmakers with the House committee on oversight and government which held a hearing june 28 to find out what went wrong with the Henry Waxman called the mall and hotel a White elephant Dur ing the criticizing the air Force for the Lack of Danny Safe director of installations and Mission admitted in his june 28 testimony that Man technical and fiscal issues but he said the commands senior leaders Are working with the German government to get the project Back on in an inter View with stars and stripes on he adamantly defended the air Force against accusations that it could have pre vented any problems because the German government construction agent is in we trusted our agent too much As we have for the last 25 years and they failed Gardner Markus an lab spokesman contacted on said he needed More time to answer questions on the Agency role in the but he blamed the need to get the project done quickly As the Over Riding reason for any the air Force estimates the project will come in under the allocated but More than 20 percent higher than con senior general accountability of fice officials gave lawmakers a much higher Price they testified that the com Gao report the problems the general accountability office re military construction observations on mismanagement of the Kaiserslautern military Community found examples of schedule and performance they include exhaust ducts flammable exhaust duct seals in the Kitchen that did not meet fire safety air Force officials said it will take several months to make the ducts costing hundreds of thousands of poorly constructed ceiling a ceiling Over the retail Section was so weak that it could not support Light misplaced escalator an escalator did not fit into a previously built Leaky roof the poorly constructed Green roof is it is one of the biggest faults on the project and will Cost millions to the German company did such a bad Job on the Structure that air Force officials suspect that much of the roof will have to be torn Down and re the which declared bankruptcy last spread tons of gravel across the top of the mall but stopped be fore planting grass on what was to be an environmentally Friendly a new contractor will have to be hired w Rex move that gravel and make the poor coordination one contractor in stalled paving stones outside of the build ing Only to see them crushed by heavy cranes being used to finish major exterior work to the another company could not install tile flooring because one firm had not finished ceiling construction workers some contractors have reduced the number of work ers or have quit altogether because there not getting the air Force has delayed the payments because it is still awaiting change orders for approx before september several Hun dred workers would normally be on now there Are usually less than understaffed Agency German construction reported that they did not have enough people to Over see the project process the High number of change orders and coordinate the various Lack of air Force oversight the air Force relaxed controls Over the project so that the construction could proceed As expeditiously As source general accountability office the Gao the air Force video of the congressional hearing and various other documents can be found at projecting the costs officials estimated the Kaiserslautern military Community the Square foot mall and hotel Complex at Ramstein air base Center would Cost More than million to a general accountability office report estimates the project will Cost in excess of a look at How the original Cost of the project was broken Rhein main transition funding funding in millions of services Agency cafes Milton source air forces in Europe plex is serious trouble and will Likely Cost in excess of and there could be More far reaching consequences for the delays and Cost Over if changes Are not congressional investigators report that those issues could affect million Worth of construction in Germany Over the next five the Gao report concluded that the at tempt to build the mall and hotel building quickly so it could coincide with the clo sure of Rhei main air base in Frankfurt in december 2005 was a contributing fac Tor to Many of the congressional investigators who visited Ramstein in May and june determined that Cost and sched ule problems had been exacerbated by multiple including poor workmanship and ineffective investigators criticized the Agency in charge of the for not hiring a general contractor to help oversee More than 30 but air Force officials Are accused of not doing enough to mini Mize the air Force officials have said that Ger Man authorities insisted on not hiring a prime contractor so that they could spread the wealth to smaller construction companies in the but the Lack of coordination and design flaws led to dam age on finished work and an overwhelming number of see mall on Page 4 military was aware of issues with Complex project three years ago military officials and others said they became aware of problems with the Kaiserslautern military Community centers Progress As Long As three years Danny air forces in Europe director of installations and Mission said he first started noticing problems with the project in december but the army and air Force Exchange service and the air Force services Agency voiced concerns about the project As Early As sep tember in a memo to Safe top officials with cafes and the services Agency wrote that they had problems with the fast track approach which was meant to Pace the projects completion with the closure of Rhei main air base in the memo would be this accelerated process has contributed to critical design process de sign coordination and schedule May cause Cost in creases and project the memo it want until the Early part of 2006 that Gardner said he got heavily he went to German construction contractor lab for weve got some timelines what was the problem Gardner recalled say their answer to me its because the customers keep changing the by june last lab provided 549 change its not unusual for Large projects to have that Many but design flaws added to the there were so Many changes the Agency has yet to provide some of the mounting number of changes is one reason Why the number of workers on site has when the air Force refused to pay for changes they have not reviewed or contractors started walking off the Many have not earlier this fewer than a couple dozen workers could be seen on get Ting them Back on site is crucial to finishing the Scott Schonauer