Dive Brief:
- The Massachusetts Department of Transportation announced that the $81.8 million Commonwealth Avenue Bridge project in Boston will be delayed for one year due to design errors by contractor Walsh Construction Co., according to The Boston Globe.
- MassDOT is replacing the concrete deck and steel beams of the 1965 bridge due to deterioration and corrosion. A steel girder redesign will affect scheduled closures as well as completion.
- Representatives from Walsh said they have resolved issues with the steel girders "and look forward to successfully completing the first phase of the project in the summer of 2017." However, the company has lost out on a $7.2 million bonus it could have earned if it had met the 2016 closure phase, according to The Globe.
Dive Insight:
The Boston area has seen a string of project problems recently. The Globe reported that the Commonwealth Avenue Bridge delay comes a little over a year after MassDOT announced a two-year delay on the Longfellow Bridge. State officials said that holdup resulted from having to preserve the historic aspects of the bridge.
And, of course, this year has brought one of the most high-profile transportation project problems for Boston — its beleaguered Green Line high-speed rail extension.
Some officials said the project went off the rails because of the contract and procurement process, which resulted in selecting the joint venture of White-Skanska-Kiewit as primary contractor. The state said the method in which subcontracts were issued drove cost overruns and delays, and WSK was eventually removed from the project, along with every other major contractor.
However, in subsequent analysis, evidence came to light that suggested state transportation officials knew about and ignored higher cost estimates before the project even began. At this point, the state is exploring budget cuts at every level to make the project viable.