PUBLIC BENEFIT
Liberty Bridge contractor to foot entire bill for fire repairs, reduce traffic restrictions
Joseph B. Fay Co. will pay the entire $5.8 million in emergency repair costs for the construction fire on the Liberty Bridge in September.
But the contractor will avoid more than $3 million in penalties for the bridge being closed for 24 days by changing its work schedule to eliminate other traffic restrictions during the project, including a two-week period this summer when traffic would have been reduced to one lane in each direction. Fay will receive credits for reducing or eliminating traffic restrictions that will offset the penalties, known as “road user liquidated damages.”
Fay will pay $826,000 in costs incurred directly by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation as well as about $5 million in
its own costs for materials, labor and other aspects of the emergency and permanent repairs to the bridge. PennDOT’s costs include $638,873 to assemble a 16member team of experts that used lasers to monitor any movement of the bridge, designed 3D models for repairs, and managed and inspected the work.
Additional costs for fabricating pieces of steel haven’t been finalized yet, but Fay will cover that, too, said James Foringer, acting executive for PennDOT’s District 11.
“They are paying all of our costs,” he said. “PennDOT isn’t paying for anything whatsoever. Fay pays for everything.”
Trading penalties for a reduction in traffic restrictions benefits the public and avoids the possibility Fay could successfully challenge the penalties in court, Mr. Foringer said. Mr. Foringer worked with three other district officials, including former executive Dan Cessna, and the department’s chief legal counsel to negotiate the 11-page agreement with Fay that was signed May 19.
The Federal Highway Administration, which is providing some of the money for the $80 million bridge rehabilitation project, also approved the plan.
“We really want to stress this is a net reduction in the amount of days with serious traffic restrictions,” Mr. Foringer said Monday. “It’s one way we can return the facility to the public. They’re gaining a direct benefit from this.
“How I look at it is we could have kept the assessed damages and in the end lost in court and ended up with nothing.”
This is the first time in his 30 years with the agency that PennDOT in the Pittsburgh area has approved such an agreement to reduce or eliminate damages, Mr. Foringer said.
Mr. Foringer said Fay officials first brought the idea of offsetting damages by reducing the amount of traffic restrictions Oct. 5. The company’s proposal is pretty similar to the final agreement with one exception: PennDOT pushed for the contractor to eliminate a scheduled two-week period this summer when the bridge would have been limited to one lane of traffic in each direction rather than the usual construction configuration of three lanes, two inbound during the morning rush hour and two outbound for the evening rush.
“We challenged them. We really forced them to figure out how to do that if we were going to agree to do something,” he said. “That was a big win for the public that we don’t have to do that. In the agreement, we know we got $3 million in road users costs back [by reducing traffic restrictions].”
The department and contractor agreed to a complicated formula that puts a dollar value on the amount of time traffic is restricted. Eliminating the two weeks of one-way traffic in each direction generated a $560,000 credit.
Other changes include reducing the days the ramps from the Boulevard of the Allies would be closed from 132 to 80 ($1.25 million credit); cutting the number of full overnight bridge closures from 26 to 10 ($800,000); and reducing the maximum number of days with traffic restricted to three lanes from 108 to 57.
To make up for those changes, Fay will pay crews to work overtime shifts. In addition, PennDOT agreed to allow the contractor to increase the number of weekend closures from five to 11, for a charge of $478,000, and the number of overnight inbound closures from zero to 26 ($650,000).
None of the changes will affect the completion date of the project — June 2018.
Mr. Foringer said the contractor can get more work done on weekends with full closures because crews can eliminate the time it takes to move equipment and material to the site and take it away.
The heat from the Sept. 2 fire, which started when hot slag from a steel-cutting operation on the bridge deck fell onto plastic ventilation pipe stored on a temporary platform under the bridge, buckled a key 30-foot support chord. PennDOT closed the bridge in fear that it could collapse.
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration initially fined Fay $11,224 for a “serious” safety violation but reduced it to $7,500 because the company cooperated and had a good previous safety record. The agency’s investigation found the company had two previous minor fires that it did not report only days before and had removed its “fire watch” from the site hours before the serious fire.
As a result of the fire, Mr. Foringer said, PennDOT learned about the resources available during an emergency, such as 3-D imaging. The agency also is in the process of changing bid specifications to enhance fire watch provisions and will improve training internally so that its site inspectors ask more pointed questions during safety meetings.
“To me, [a fire] doesn’t just happen,” he said. “Obviously, the individuals out there [private contractors and PennDOT monitors] needed to be paying closer attention to what was going on. From the department’s standpoint, it’s not an acceptable accident by any means.”