Legal
Colorado Springs and Contractor Sue Each Other Over Pikes Peak Visitor Center
GE Johnson Construction Co. says it substantially completed the Pikes Peak Summit Visitor Center in July 2021.
Photo courtesy of Pikes Peak America's Mountain
A Colorado contractor and the city it built a mountaintop visitor center for are accusing each other of breach of contract over unresolved issues with the project.
GE Johnson Construction Co. Inc. filed a lawsuit against the city of Colorado Springs in March in state district court, alleging the city still owed it money for change orders and compensable delays on the Pikes Peak Summit Visitor Center project. Meanwhile, the city has filed a countersuit, alleging the contractor has refused to address issues with the construction of a parking lot and installation of a water treatment system.
With approved change orders, GE Johnson says the contract sum is over $60 million. The complaint does not specify how much money the contractor says it is still owed.
Work on the 38,400-sq-ft visitor center, more than 14,000 ft above sea level, started in August 2018. But the contractor says it immediately faced a nine-week delay because of a needed memorandum of understanding between the city and U.S. Forest Service, as the site is located in a national forest.
To make up for the delay, GE Johnson says it worked weekends and overtime past the planned end of the 2018 build season, but harsh winter conditions at the mountain peak made construction difficult and posed safety hazards. ENR previously reported on the challenges presented by the unusual building site.
GE Johnson also says it is still owed money for four change order requests it submitted. Two of them involved winter work outside the window of May 31 to Sept. 30 that had been set as the build season in the contract.
Another change order related to differing site conditions that were unexpected from the geotechnical report GE Johnson says was prepared by the city’s soil engineer. As a result, a subcontractor’s blasting took 79 days instead of the planned 20.
The contractor says “severe undulation” throughout subsurface rock where the structure’s footings were to be also necessitated another change order for extra work hammering and excavating the high points of the undulations.
Colorado Springs-based GE Johnson ranks No. 160 on the ENR 2022 Top 400 Contractors list. The company and city officials both declined to comment on the case.
In a response to the complaint and countersuit filed last month, attorneys for Colorado Springs admitted there was a delay related to the Forest Service agreement, but said it was only minor and should not have significantly delayed the project. They also denied that the change orders in question were submitted on a timely basis.
The city also says a parking lot at the visitor center has “experienced severe undulations” since it was installed, which it alleges is GE Johnson’s fault. The contractor has refused to perform needed repairs, and the city says it expects work to cost nearly $450,000 when done this summer.
Additionally, a membrane wastewater treatment system that was installed as part of the project does not function as specified in the contract, the city says. It sent GE Johnson a warranty notice request to identify the issues and develop a plan to fix them, but the contractor did not respond to the notice.
A trial has been scheduled for Oct. 23 in El Paso County, court records show.
