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Belle Chasse bridge not yet finally accepted; contractor accruing liquidated damages as work continues
Summary
DOTD and project staff told the committee that the Belle Chasse (Industrial Canal) toll bridge had not reached final acceptance; the contractor was accruing liquidated damages (reported at $15,000 per day as of late February) and DOTD said fixes to approach settlement had been approved and work remains to achieve final acceptance.
The committee received an update on the Belle Chasse bridge project, where approach settlement issues delayed final acceptance and led to the accrual of liquidated damages.
Department project staff told legislators that as of late February the contractor had missed the final-acceptance deadline and was accruing liquidated damages at $15,000 per day. DOTD said partial acceptance was expected in mid-March and that the department had received roughly $2.7 million in liquidated damages through January; the amount will grow until the contract reaches partial and final acceptance.
"The approaches to the bridge, not the bridge itself, were settling initially," Nick Olivier, project manager in DOTD's Critical Projects division, told the committee. Olivier said the contractor removed and rebuilt the approaches and that the rebuilt approaches were being monitored. "They're about, today, about a quarter inch high, and they expect by the time the project reaches final acceptance, they will be no more than an inch a half an inch below. And that's within the tolerance that's required by our standard specification," Olivier said.
Representative Breaux and other committee members asked where the liquidated-damages proceeds would go and whether the safety issue with the approaches had been resolved. DOTD said the mitigation measures and the contractor's schedule were in place to reach partial acceptance; the department said liquidated-damages proceeds collected to date have been received and that use of the funds will follow the statutory and contractual terms in place and, in at least one case, legislative direction tied to a joint authority.
Ending: DOTD told the committee it will continue to monitor the repaired approaches and pursue final acceptance once the remaining nonconformance items are closed. Committee members asked DOTD staff to track accrued damages and to advise the committee on any options to accelerate acceptance or negotiate changes to the long-term toll agreement if appropriate.
