* Bidding low
* Negotiating an incredible daily reward for early completion (I imagine government did consult on the feasibility of this)
* Actually completing such a project in an incredibly short amount of time
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/05/04/...
> The collapsed section of Interstate 580 will be rebuilt and reopened to traffic within 50 days under a Caltrans plan to speed up repairs on the MacArthur Maze, officials announced Thursday.
> Nine construction companies have been given the weekend to prepare proposals to do the work, which Caltrans Director Will Kempton said should cost less than $20 million. Caltrans will choose one of the companies by Monday evening, rushing a bidding process that normally would take months.
> The firms must repair the collapsed freeway by June 29 or face $200,000 a day in penalties from the state. But should they finish the work ahead of schedule, they'll earn a $200,000-a-day bonus for each day they were ahead of the deadline, Kempton said.
> "There is absolutely no question in my mind that any incentives paid to achieve early opening is money well spent," he said at a news conference in Sacramento.
> The clock starts running Tuesday morning, Kempton said, and the contractor is expected to start work immediately.
> ...
> Kempton said that the bonus money offered to open the freeway before June 29 is based on what officials estimate the closures are costing the state. Caltrans will pay for the project initially from a highway safety account, but federal officials have said they will reimburse California for the repairs.
Sounds like $200,000 a day for bonus payments was nothing.
Incredible sense of teamwork, collaboration, support, care, pride in a job well done.
To me, it is efforts at this scale and quality that make “America great” and lets me reclaim the meaning of this phrase.