If Boston wins its Olympic bid, the city could be transformed with new construction, overseen by the Boston Redevelopment Authority. That agency is attempting to change its culture after years of mismanagement and back-room deals. Still, the BRA says it would be able withstand the pressures that come with planning an Olympics.
Previous Olympics contractors say those pressures are considerable.
There’s a relatively select group of major contractors who work with host cities to design, build and manage Olympic Games. Over the past month those contractors have begun talking with Boston developers and participating in local public panel discussions. They’re repeating the same message: Boston really doesn’t have that much time to complete planning that may largely determine the success of the Games.
"It’s a very, very, very short time frame," said Mike Szomjassy, an executive vice president at Colorado-based CH2M Hill, which oversaw design, procurement, construction and the operation of facilities at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
“In London, the process was plan for two years, build for four, commission for one," he said. "And that’s really the timeframe that you need to be looking at to get that planning done appropriately, and have the end in mind.”
For Boston, Szomjassy says that means a lot of planning needs to be complete by 2018. And it won’t just be planning, he says — it will be planning under pressure.
"What happens now, everybody wants a piece of the pie," he said.
Szomjassy says Boston must have procedures in place now for avoiding outside influence in awarding and monitoring contractors. If the city can maintain those standards, he says it will go a long way toward building public trust.
"There has been graft in the Olympics — certainly allegations of graft, let’s put it that way, in terms of how things are first awarded and how they’re executed," he said. "But I’m sure — I would think — that the procurement rules will be well-established, because no one wants that tainting.”
The tension stems from the fact that the agency responsible for upholding those procurement rules is still trying to recover from decades of mismanagement. The Boston Redevelopment Authority has long been criticized for favoring certain developers. Just last summer, an independent review found its procedures were incomplete, outdated, and poorly documented, with most critical documents kept only in paper form.
New BRA Director Brian Golden openly acknowledges the agency’s failures.
"There was an astounding lack of responsible business systems within the organization," Golden said. "We were perceived and in some cases truly did do a lot of deals behind closed doors. And we were an opaque agency historically, not a transparent agency. The first order of business was getting something done. And if the public had the potential to get in the way of that, then the decision was often, 'Then let’s not bring the public in on it.'”
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh promised an overhaul of the agency as he took office, and Golden says the agency has been meticulous about reform.
"The way the reforms were accomplished, primarily, was just clear direction," Golden said. "Most people embraced it, and if they didn’t embrace it immediately, they acquiesced pretty quickly, because they knew that our political environment and new leadership were requiring it."
The BRA's community liaison for the games, John FitzGerald, says the agency’s now in a position to handle everything the Olympics can throw at it. He points out there are currently a historic 15.3 million square feet under construction in the city, up from just 4.5 million square feet three years ago.
"I would venture to say that the amount of construction going on in the city right now is more than would be required for the Olympics," FitzGerald said.
And FitzGerald says planning for the Olympics will just be a natural extension of the work already underway.
"Boston is not planning for the Olympics," he said. "Rather we are using the Olympics to push forward Boston’s planning."
And that’s why some Olympics contractors say, if Boston can get its procedures right, the games could force revolutionary change in the city.
"One great thing about the Olympics is a deadline," said Dennis Pieprz, an urban designer who worked on the 2008 Beijing Olympics, speaking at the Designing Boston: Olympics 2024 event organized by the Boston Society of Architects. "So if you’re improving infrastructure: nothing better than a deadline."
It’s not like the Olympics can be postponed, Pieprz says, if Boston experiences delays.
