A May 30 settlement in a convoluted legal dispute over an array of project issues on a much-delayed and overbudget bus-rail hub in a Washington, D.C. suburb, has brought parties less than they hoped for.
Montgomery County, Md., had sought $67 million from designer Parsons Brinckerhoff, general contractor Foulger-Pratt Contracting LLC and construction inspection firm Robert Balter Co., claiming they shared responsibility for pervasive concrete cracking and spalling problems found during construction of the 259,000-sq-ft, cast-in-place Silver Spring (Md.) Transit Center. The three-story structure opened in 2015 five years late, costing about $120 million, up significantly from its original $75-million project estimate.