Builders face penalties over road work delays
Published 11:44 am Tuesday, November 22, 2011
The builder of a new bridge on Redbone Road at Paces Bayou might have to pay an additional penalty of $1,200 because the company did not meet the Warren County-imposed deadline.
Separately, a paving project in Amberleaf subdivision has gone past a contracted deadline.
Magco Inc. completed work in October on a new span on Redbone, but is subject to $300 per-day late fee, according to the Mississippi State Specifications for State Aid Road and Bridge Construction’s penalty scale, based on contract value. The original contract was $541,845.62. The bridge was one of three financed with state highway and bridge maintenance money planned in Warren County this year.
Paving on Amberleaf Drive off U.S. 80 was to end a week ago today, though unfinished work by contract paver Central Asphalt has incurred liquidated damages totaling $200 a day, county officials said. The firm won a $153,590.20 contract on Oct. 3 for the work, to be paid back to the county via a special assessment on property taxes on subdivision residents. The process begins with a petition to supervisors, which residents there and in Forest Cove and Fairways initiated in 2010. Paving ended in those two neighborhoods during the summer.
Extreme temperatures last winter and summer and the historic flood on the Mississippi River in May were blamed for delays on the Redbone job and on a $1.5 million job to replace twin spans on Fisher Ferry Road at the Big Black River. Completion is expected after Jan. 1, plus 20 extra working days tacked on by county supervisors after a request from Fordice Construction cited flood-related holdups.
A third state-aid project on Bazinsky Road at Durden Creek is expected to start before year’s end. Fordice won a $444,410.76 contract to replace an old span at the site.