Bechtel National, a subsidiary of San Francisco-based Bechtel Corporation, has been awarded a $1.8 billion contract in Iraq.

The corporation has been named by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), as contractor for 'Iraq Infrastructure II', a programme to rehabilitate and repair Iraq's infrastructure.

Bechtel will team up with Parsons of Pasadena, California, and Horne Engineering Services of Fairfax, Virginia, for the $1.8 billion contract which will run over 24 months.

A spokesperson at the Pentagon said that the contract would include such major infrastructure sectors as electric power systems, municipal water and sanitation services, road networks and rail systems, selected public buildings, ports and waterways, and airports.

"We are honoured to have been selected to continue to help rebuild Iraq," said Bechtel National President Tom Hash.

"This award, made after an open, competitive process, demonstrates our customer's confidence in our team's capacity and commitment to quickly begin Iraq Infrastructure II work, while at the same time continuing work under our initial Iraq reconstruction contract."

Bechtel has said that it is ranked 189th out of 716 organizations whose “soft”, or corporate, money was tracked in the 2001-2002 presidential election cycle.

"Bechtel’s soft contributions, which ended after enactment of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA), were evenly balanced between the major parties. In the most recent election cycle (2002), among the competitors for the USAID contract, Halliburton and Parsons gave 100% of their 'soft money' to Republicans, Washington Group gave 78% to Republicans, and Bechtel gave 52% to Republicans," the company's statement added.

(gmcg)