« Ind. Decisions - Court of Appeals issues 0 today (and 11NFP) | Main | About this blog - Don't miss updates »

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Ind. Courts - Greene County Courthouse work hits snag

Nick Schneider of the Daily World reports, in a lengthy story that includes the following:

Weddle Brothers Construction Company, Inc. - the general contractor for the Greene County Courthouse Addition/Renovation project - has walked off the job because of an apparent dispute over outstanding claims not paid.

Weddle Brothers - based in Bloomington - ceased work on the courthouse project at 5 p.m. on Monday, due to what the company called “the lack of a formal response to outstanding monetary claims for its Phase II work on the project.”

The Phase II claims for payment, which amount to $710,399, are fully attributable to design changes that occurred after Greene County officials fired its initial design team, according to Don Turner, spokesman for the construction company.

“We really don't have a choice,” Turner said in a formal statement issued to area news media Monday evening. “Quite frankly, the last thing Weddle wants is yet another delay on this project, but our company and many of our subcontractors have had to unfairly bear the cost of the county's numerous design changes for more than seven months.

“When the county's attorneys recently told us we would have to wait until the project was completed before they would even respond to these costs issues, we had no other recourse but to take this action. Additionally, the county does not have the right to unilaterally increase the scope of the work in our original contract and then not pay us for it.” * * *

The project has been through a several other delays - including more than a year in 2003 while a new design team figured out a way to stabilize the foundation and have safety concerns of the contractor resolved. The project also had a recent delay late last year while asbestos and lead abatement was done on the second of third floors of the old courthouse structure which are being renovated to new office space.

Last month, project manager Corey announced that he anticipated remodel work on the second and third floors would be completed by late April.

Weddle Bros. has been involved in the work since the project started more than five years ago. The original architect - DLZ of Indiana - and structural engineer - United Consulting Engineers - were dismissed from the project, and Greene County has filed suit against them in December 2004. Weddle was named to this suit almost a year later. The suit is set for trial in Owen Circuit Court in July 2007.

The ILB has posted a number of other entries on the Greene County Courthouse - access them here.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 30, 2007 05:18 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts