I-4 construction claim for extra $100M gets extension
Talks over a contractor’s claim for an additional $100 million and 245 days to rebuild Interstate 4 through the Orlando area will continue indefinitely.
The builder, a family of companies under the umbrella of I-4 Mobility Partners, and the Florida Department of Transportation have agreed to suspend a 120-day deadline to resolve the claim for more days and cash.
“To allow sufficient time for these discussions to fully develop, it has been mutually agreed by the aforementioned parties to suspend the FDOT 120 day response timeline,” states a memorandum signed by state official and builders.
Work began in 2015 along 21 miles of I-4 from north of State Road 434 in Seminole, through Orlando and to west of Florida's Turnpike in Orange County. Completion originally had been targeted for 2021.
I-4 Mobility Partners filed its claim in early June, which the Florida Department of Transportation did not acknowledge until after Moody's Investors Service issued a credit opinion for the project in late June.
That opinion expressed a “negative outlook” for the financing behind what then had been billed as a $2.3 billion overhaul of Central Florida’s busiest and most congested road.
Called I-4 Ultimate, the project is being financed through a hybrid of public loans and with private money from I-4 Mobility Partners.
The company is to recoup its investment through proceeds of toll lanes – labeled by the state as “express” lanes – that are being added to the freeway as the chief solution for congestion.
The memo suspending the 120-day deadline was signed on Oct. 3 by representatives of the transportation department, I-4 Mobility Partners and SGL Constructors, which is a joint venture of construction companies Skanska, Granite and Lane.
The claim centers on failures to drill two shafts as part of constructing a bridge foundation.
While extensively redacted, the claim appears to at least partly blame the state Department of Transportation for “extra work and delay” stemming from the shaft failures.