BOISE — The former chairman of the body responsible for building the infrastructure and facilities for the 2012 London Olympics says politics drove him out.
Engineer Jack Lemley said construction projects for the Olympics appeared likely to come in late and cost more than expected due to politics, and he feared that could have ruined his reputation of delivering projects on time and on budget.
"I went there to build things, not to sit and talk about it," Lemley told the Idaho Statesman. "So I felt it best to leave the post and come home."
Lemley, 71, heads Lemley International, a Boise-based global engineering and consulting company. He was appointed chairman of the Olympic Delivery Agency last November, and given a four-year contract.
But Lemley said he started hitting snags, one of them an 80,000-seat stadium for track and field events. Initial plans were to build the stadium so that, after the Olympics, it could be made into a 25,000-seat stadium.
Instead, local politicians wanted to convert it to a soccer stadium, which Lemley said would not be possible.
On another front, he said that 700 acres were needed for Olympic facilities, but the land contained 300 businesses.
"Some of the people were happy to move, and some of them weren't," Lemley said. "In any event, there was a huge amount of local politics."
He said he decided to get out early before financial goals and deadlines were missed.
"I felt it was better to come home now than face that in five or six years," he said.
Lemley, who was honored by Queen Elizabeth in 1996 for his work on the Channel tunnel, said he made the right decision.
"I miss working on the project, but I don't have a rearview mirror," he said. "When I make a decision like that, I never look back."
Lemley has since been working on an array of projects, including preliminary plans for underground wings for the Idaho Statehouse. Idaho lawmakers approved the idea for the wings earlier this year partly on the assurances of Lemley.
From 1989 to 1993, Lemley was chief executive of Transmanche-Link, a consortium of five British and five French companies responsible for constructing and equipping the tunnel that links Britain and France.
He also served as a consultant for the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority on Boston's troubled Big Dig project.