http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/local/silver-spring-transit-center-lawsuit/1809/
$166 million--it'll be interesting to see how much, if any, eventually gets returned to public coffers. My guess is that it won't be enough to cover attorneys' fees and time spent by county and WMATA employees prepping for court, much less "repair" costs, delay costs, extra operations and maintenance costs caused by the cracking and other associated cost overruns.
from the complaint filed with the court:
- pg. 2--Montgomery County and WMATA are seeking compensatory damages from PB, FPC and Balter; and, Montgomery County is seeking punitive damages from PB (only).
- pg. 3--construction began in the fall of 2008 with a Sept. 9, 2010 anticipated completion date. "Almost immediately, however, defects in PB's design delayed the project for almost 14 months and cost the County millions of dollars to remedy. ... PB refused to correct the critical design defects..."
- pg. 4--"For WMATA, several issues remain. ... WMATA has also expended over $864,521.00 in additional costs as a result of Defendants' failure to perform their obligations on the SSTC project."
- pg. 5--"WMATA seeks no less than $25,864,521.00 in damages from PB, FPC and Balter for the additional monitoring, inspection, repair and maintenance costs it will incur over the life of the SSTC as a result of the defective design and construction of the facility, as well as for the additional coordination costs incurred."
comments from Washington Post article - pg. 7--WMATA and the County agreed that "the County would take the lead in facilitating the design and construction of the facility". (Roger Berliner take note.)
- pg. 9--"... the costs for planning, developing, designing, constructing and finally completing the Transit Center will be paid for by the County. ... In addition, the County agrees to reimburse WMATA staff's costs for document and plan review, project administration and inspection costs associated solely with the Transit Center in an amount not to exceed $942,000. ... WMATA agreed to assign a full time, on site staff person to the Transit Center project." (Note: WMATA is seeking $25,864,521.00 in damages for "additional monitoring, inspection, repair and maintenance costs". Is this in addition to the maximum $942,000 allotted to WMATA for "plan review, project administration and inspection costs"? Wow! One would think for that kind of money, plus a full time, on site staff person assigned to the project, that WMATA would have discovered, over the course of many years while the SSTC was being designed and built, that the 315 ft. wide by 580 ft. long SSTC violates WMATA's own design and construction standards by not having expansion joints located every 100 feet or less. But then, this is WMATA--with its lousy inspection and safety record.)
- pg. 11--PB's contract is $8,506,283.38. At "substantial completion" PB had been paid $8,278,128.23.
- pgs. 12-17 contain details of and excerpts from PB's design contract.
- pgs. 17-18 contain details of and excerpts from the on-site project engineer agreement between the County and PB. "Under the terms of the PB Construction Oversight Contract, PB was to bill the County on an hourly basis in an amount not to exceed $465,150.00. PB and the County subsequently amended this contract to increase the not to exceed amount to $1,170,855.00. For the work that it represented that it performed under the PB Construction Oversight Contract, PB has been paid $1,170,825.00."
- pgs. 18-22 contain details of and excerpts from the General Construction Contract between the County and FPC. "The fixed price for construction is $65,841,294.00." Construction must conform to WMATA, Federal Transit Administration and Montgomery County requirements. "Liquidated damages" clauses ($8,900.00/day) are included.
- pgs. 22-25 contain details of and excerpts from the County's agreements with Balter to inspect work on the SSTC.
- pgs. 26 and 27 present problems in design and construction of the SSTC. "Both before and after construction began, WMATA and the County expressed concern to PB about over-restraint in the design of the concrete slabs and questioned whether such a condition would create a problem." (Note: "Over-restraint" is what you get in a 315 ft. wide by 580 ft. long concrete building that doesn't have any expansion joints (despite the fact that WMATA design and construction standards require that expansion joints be placed at least every 100 ft.) The "over-restraint" isn't restricted to just slabs; but, beams, girders and columns are "over-restrained" too. One would think that with all of the people looking at plans over the course of the many years during which design, permitting, construction and (supposedly) inspection took place, that someone would have realized that a 315 ft. wide by 580 ft. long concrete building without expansion joints is "over-restrained". Structures 101. DUH!)
- pgs. 27 to 29 present a brief summary of the County retaining structural engineering firm KCE to investigate design, construction and inspection defects and to develop solutions. Page 29 states: "Balter, whom the County had retained as its watchdog ... and paid $1,124,399.57 for its services, ... (Balter) apparently never detected ... defects ..."
- pgs. 29 to 31 present remedial actions taken in response to KCE's report. On page 30 it states: "the County asked PB on more than one occasion to provide its shear and torsion calculations... PB responded repeatedly that it had already provided those calculations... Ultimately, PB admitted that it had never performed the shear and torsion calculations... PB refused to participate in devising a solution."
- pg. 31 states: "In addition to the $77,574,332.00 it had already been paid, FPC was paid millions of dollars for this remediation work, which would have been unnecessary if the job had been done correctly the first time."
- pgs. 31 and 32 discuss transfer of the SSTC to WMATA.
Montgomery County passing the severely flawed Silver Spring Transit Center to equally flawed WMATA - pgs. 32 to 57 describe each of the counts of the complaint, which are as follows:
- count 1--breach of PB's design contract
- count 2--breach of PB construction oversight contract
- count 3--breach of express warranty (PB) (Note: For those of us who aren't lawyers, "breach of express warranty" is like when a public official (e.g. David Dise, Isiah Leggett, George Leventhal, et al) make statements like "we're going to get all of the money back from those who are responsible"--a promise. When the promise isn't kept, e.g., the public doesn't get back all of the money from those who the promise-maker says are responsible, then that's breach (breaking) of express warranty (promise).
- count 4--professional negligence (PB design contract)
- count 5--professional negligence (PB construction oversight contract)
- count 6--indemnification-hold harmless (PB)
- count 7--intentional misrepresentation (PB)
- count 8--negligent misrepresentation (PB)
- count 9--gross negligence (PB)
- count 10--breach of contract (FPC)
- count 11--breach of express warranty (FPC)
- count 12--negligence (FPC)
- count 13--indemnification-hold harmless (FPC)
- count 14--breach of contract (Balter)
- count 15--professional negligence (Balter)
- count 16--indemnification-hold harmless (Balter)
- count 17--breach of PB design contract WRT WMATA
- count 18--breach of express warranty (PB) WRT WMATA
- count 19--professional negligence (PB) WRT WMATA
- count 20--indemnification-hold harmless (PB design contract) WRT WMATA
- count 21--breach of contract (FPC) WRT WMATA
- count 22--breach of express warranty (FPC) WRT WMATA
- count 23--negligence (FPC) WRT WMATA
- count 24--indemnification-hold harmless (FPC) WRT WMATA
- count 25--breach of contract (Balter) WRT WMATA
- count 26--professional negligence (Balter) WRT WMATA
For the past two and one half years the news media (print, TV, radio, internet) have reported one side of the story--Montgomery County's--Isiah Leggett, George Leventhal, Roger Berliner, David Dise (ad nauseum), et al. The games have just begun. Let's hear what PB, FPC and Balter have to say. We're bound to learn some things different from what Montgomery County and the news media have been saying for the past two and a half years.
One thing for sure--we taxpayers, lose again!
Silver Spring Transit Center
Paul S. Sarbanes Transit Center
Montgomery County MD
WMATA
public-private partnership
crony capitalism
Maryland Transit Administration (MTA)
Federal Transit Administration (FTA)
Purple Line
Gov. Hogan
