Airport rejects contractor Great Hall’s first cost-and-delay claim
Faced with pleas for more money and time, Denver International Airport has delivered its first wholesale rejection of a major claim by the contracting team on its troubled terminal renovation project.
Great Hall Partners is not entitled to any time extensions or additional costs that may have resulted from the discovery of weak concrete in the terminal’s main floor last fall, DIA said in a claim response sent Friday. The response, which DIA filed in a public bond disclosure system Friday evening, said Great Hall didn’t meet the criteria for a claim and didn’t demonstrate any attempt to mitigate the fallout.
DIA officials and city attorneys still are considering how to respond to other formal compensation claims filed at the same time as the concrete claim on July 26. Those relate to extra costs and delays that Great Hall Partners attributes to about 20 airport change directives that concerned design, materials and other elements on the $650 million renovation project.
While it waits to hear DIA’s decision on those directives, Great Hall said in a new disclosure to its bondholders Monday morning that it intends to activate a contractual process to resolve the concrete claim.
“The dispute resolution process is, by its nature, long and expensive for everyone involved,” the Great Hall filing says. “For that reason, among others, the Developer is willing to negotiate with the Owner in good faith to find a mutually acceptable resolution to these issues. The Developer remains committed to delivering the Project to the public as quickly and efficiently as possible.”
DIA and Great Hall Partners have declined to release the contractor’s recent claims or detail how much extra time and money it wants, despite open-records requests by The Denver Post. Great Hall is led by Madrid-based Ferrovial Airports.
Under the contract, Great Hall is required to finish the project, which broke ground in summer 2018, by November 2021. Earlier
this year, Great Hall projected that overall delays could reach more than three years and costs could soar by more than $300 million.
“DEN will continue to hold Great Hall Partners to their obligations under the development agreement,” airport spokeswoman Stacey Stegman wrote in an email Monday, referring to the contract. “We remain committed to delivering this project as quickly as possible in a high-quality manner for the citizens of Denver and the traveling public.”
The concrete claim is rooted in delays that resulted after testing early in the project showed that the “compressive strength” in the existing concrete floor on the terminal’s Level 5 — the same level as the main security screening areas — fell short of specifications from the airport’s original construction.
That called into question the floor’s ability to bear the load of cranes and other construction activity, and Great Hall halted some work in the affected area, including the lifting of steel beams. Subsequent testing and analysis found the floor was strong enough, however, and construction on that part of the project resumed in the spring.
In its response to Great Hall’s claim, DIA said Great Hall “has failed to account for its concurrent delay or meet the requirements to establish the occurrence of a Relief Event,” which is what the contract calls any issue that qualifies a claim.
Great Hall’s new filing expressed disappointment in what it characterizes as DIA’s “limited explanation” for the decision.
The dispute resolution process that Great Hall says it will activate is detailed in the contracting team’s complex public-private partnership agreement. It involves the selection of a three-member panel that can issue a binding decision. DIA and Great Hall each would select one member, and those members then would jointly select a chairperson who is an attorney; the panel then would consider arguments and evidence provided by both sides. Jon Murray: 303-954-1405, jmurray@denverpost.com or @JonMurray