Denver Hospital Complaint Exhibit Handwritten note cited by Kiewit-Turner as Exhibit A. Courtesy of Kiewit-Turner Multi-building complex may come in at a cost close to $1 billion, says the construction joint venture. To measure how far apart the Kiewit-Turner joint venture is from the Dept. of Veterans Affairs (VA) on the final cost of completing a new veterans hospital in Aurora, Colo., you can start with their differing views of “the note.”The note is a handwritten agreement completed in November 2011. In it, both the contracting venture and the department pledge to devote resources to keep the project cost to
Related Links: Georgia Slapped by Court in Tristate Water Dispute 11th Circuit Appeals Court 2011 Opinion In the latest salvo in a decades-long dispute, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) says his state in September will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to force Georgia to share some of the water from the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee and Flint (ACF) river basins.According to a statement issued by Scott, the collapse of discussions, in 2003, among Alabama, Florida and Georgia "left Florida and Alabama in the same disadvantaged position" just as Georgia was able to stake more claims to the waters.The Apalachicola's water levels are
Related Links: Source of Forged Surety Bonds Remains Mysterious A Bold Individual Surety Claims His Coal-Backed Bonds are Rock Solid Contractors John Melching Jr. and Dallas Collins are based in Pennsylvania and Texas, respectively, and have never met, but they have something in common: They claim they have been cheated in the past year by a business transaction that involved Larry Polec, a Chicago-based surety-bond broker.Polec is easy to spot. He is a former Michigan State basketball player who stands 6 ft, 8 in. Less easy to spot, however, are his roles in and links to an informal network of
Related Links: Supreme Court Decision in Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District Supreme Court Order Granting Certiorari in NLRB and EPA cases The U.S. Supreme Court handed down the last decisions of its October 2012 term on June 26, issuing rulings in closely watched affirmative-action and same-sex-marriage cases. But perhaps more significant for the construction and engineering industry are the cases the court agreed to hear in its next term.The first, National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning, could have significant ramifications in the way presidential recess appointments are made.The second, Environmental Protection Agency v. EME Homer City
Courtesy California Expo Rail Authority Concrete is placed on a bridge deck last month for the light rail line expansion to Santa Monica. A Los Angeles light rail line being expanded by Skanska USA faces a court challenge that could shut down work.The state Supreme Court is scheduled to hand down a decision by Aug.7 in a challenge by local residents to Phase II of the Los Angeles Exposition Rail line, now under construction through the city’s west side and due to start operating in 2015.The main issue is whether a construction authority has the discretion to use existing or
Related Links: Supreme Court June 24 Order on NLRB v. Noel Canning Link to U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Jan. 25 decision in Noel Canning v. NLRB The U.S. Supreme Court on June 24 said it would review a case during its next term that could have a significant impact on the way presidential recess appointments are made.A broad decision by the court in the case, National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning, could limit a president’s ability to put a personal stamp on the board, other federal agencies and federal courts. The high court is nearing
Photo courtesy Savannah River Site Waste processing facility at Aiken, S.C., site was set for completion in July 2012. Related Links: Baker Concrete v. SRNS NNSA Letter DOE Looking at Cost, Schedule Problems at S.C. Nuclear Site Independent DOE Review (January 2013) of Construction Quality and Fire Protection System Design at the Savannah River Site Waste Solidification Building Claiming the Fluor Corp.-led team that manages and operates a federal nuclear-waste site in Aiken, S.C., intentionally misled it about the status of design completion on a $90-million plutonium and uranium waste-disposal project under way, Baker Concrete Construction Inc. sued the joint
The federal government announced its largest construction-related False Claims Act settlement of 2013 earlier this month involving alleged disadvantaged business enterprise fraud by a collection of Ohio-based engineering-related companies.The U.S. Dept. of Justice says it has reached a settlement with Dayton-based TesTech Inc., TesTech owner Sherif Aziz, Dayton companies CESO Testing Technology Inc., CESO International LLC, and CESO Inc., and their owners, David and Shery Oakes. They have agreed to pay $2.88 million to resolve the fraud allegations, DOJ says.The allegations were brought with the assistance of a whistleblower, former employee Ryan Parker, who will receive $562,370 of the settlement
Related Links: Study: Global Contract Disputes Worth Less, But Last Longer Construction disputes around most of the globe took longer to settle in 2012 than the year before, according to a new survey.The Middle East topped the chart in terms of both the length of disputes and the values involved.The average time needed in 2012 to settle construction disputes increased by 20%, or about 60 days, to 12.8 months.The money at stake in the disputes declined slightly, to $31.7 million.The data came from the newest Global Construction Disputes Report published by EC Harris, a U.K.-based built asset consultant and a
Related Links: Forrester Correspondence with District of Columbia over Joint Venture Project Prices (Embedded at bottom of page) District of Columbia Announcement of Forrester Settlement One of the Washington, D.C. area's biggest general contractors agreed to take $1 million less than it had requested for a big district high school renovation project because the district said the company had misrepresented its work with a minority-owned business enterprise on the project and two others.The contractor, Rockville, Md.-based Forrester Construction Co., made itself the majority and controlling partner of the joint ventures, entitling it to most of the profits, without informing the
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