County ends Crosby-Lynchburg contract

The Harris County Engineering Department on Jan. 23 announced a contract termination with the contractor working on the Crosby-Lynchburg Road Segment 4 expansion between Lochness Drive and Thorn Street in the Crosby-Highlands area.

The project is the conversion of a two-lane road to a five-lane boulevard.

“Although work has stopped in the interim along this segment, the contract termination is pending review and approval at Harris County Commissioner’s Court,” the announcement from Harris County Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey’s Office said.

Only half of the roadway segment is completed.

With the original $6 million contract going to Aranda Brothers Construction Company, Inc., construction began in August 2021 and was expected to be finished in August 2022, almost five months ago.

“The execution of the contract to this point has resulted in ‘termination for convenience,’” said Jon Steiber, senior project manager with Pct. 3.

“Termination for convenience” is a clause in a contract that allows the contract to be terminated without a potentially costly default dispute in court, according to Matt Viator at levelset.com. Terminating a contract based on convenience often provides a much cleaner break, he said.

“Termination for convenience is sort of like at-will employment or a prenup. When a contract is terminated for convenience, the contract is being terminated simply because one party decides to terminate the agreement. It’s not necessarily due to poor performance, and it’s not because one party breached the agreement. However, termination of convenience will only be an option where a contract features a termination for convenience clause,” Viator explains in an article on the Levelset blog.

Otherwise, the termination of a regular contract can be like a divorce, he says: messy and costly.

According to Steiber, stoppage began this month and was in the best interest of county taxpayers.

Although completion of the road segment will be delayed, Steiber said the engineering department will ensure that traffic control “is maintained to provide safe travel lanes as the construction contract is rebid,” according to the announcement.

The timeline and cost to finish the contract is currently under evaluation by the design engineer.

The engineering department is in the process of preparing to rebid the remainder of the construction contract with construction expected to resume during the third quarter of 2023.

Steiber said the northbound concrete lanes are completed.

“Traffic has shifted from the old asphalt southbound lanes to the new concrete lanes in January 2023 and safety and trafficability are significantly improved,” he said.

Steiber said the work completed to this point complies with county requirements.

For more information, contact Jon Steiber with Harris County Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey’s Office at 713-274-3112 or Jonathan.Steiber@pct3.hctx.net.