OC Streetcar Project Mediation Sets $50M Payment to Walsh
Finish line is in sight for California's Orange County Streetcar project
A station along the 4.15-mile route of OC Streetcar, where the project is headed for completion and the county and prime contractor Walsh agreed to wait for work to finish before going to trial on Walsh's remaining claims.
Walsh Construction told a California state court judge last month that lawsuit mediation of its claims on an Orange County light-rail project—known as OC Streetcar—had produced a settlement of some claims under which the county agreed to pay the contractor almost an additional $50 million
With work approaching completion on the new 4.15-mile line connecting downtown Santa Ana and Garden Grove, Walsh's attorneys asked the judge to postpone a trial over any unsettled claims for disputed costs until the project was done so that all the costs could be accounted for.
"Significant recent settlement efforts have resulted in an agreement [for the county] to pay the contractor" nearly $50 million, Walsh's lawyers wrote to Judge Nathan Vhan Vu in a letter sent April 22.
In 2018, Chicago-based Walsh Construction Co. had beat out competitors for the main contract at a price of $220.5 million. After work began in 2020, the Orange County Transportation Authority began issuing the first of several hundred change orders, increasing the project price to $400 million and granting Walsh a time extension to February 2027, Walsh's attorneys told the judge.
The lawsuits started in 2022. Walsh filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit against the authority, claiming the contractor is owed money and that the design it was provided was unbuildable.
Walsh claimed that the authority's breaches included incomplete design, differing conditions, failure to acquire all properties and coordinate the project plans with government jurisdictions. The "contract value of the design and project management teams has increased 100%," Walsh stated, yet the authority has failed to grant time extensions and has withheld pay.
Four years later, a spirit of conciliation seems to have taken hold.
Looking for quick answers on construction and engineering topics?
Try Ask ENR, our new smart AI search tool.
Ask ENR →
"The parties are actively cooperating," Walsh's attorneys stated in their letter to the judge, and are "working diligently to resolve the remaining claims and complete the project as soon as possible."
In addition to the nearly $50-million payment, the interim settlement created a pre-paid allowance to be used to resolve disputes, the attorneys wrote.
