Posted on 10/31/2007 9:50:24 PM PDT by BenLurkin
SANTA CLARITA - An $11 million-plus repair project on the tunnel damaged by a 31-vehicle pileup on Oct. 12 will keep the transition road from the southbound Golden State (5) Freeway to northbound Antelope (14) Valley Freeway closed until late November, Caltrans announced Tuesday. Until repairs are completed, cars will be sharing the southbound 5 with tractor-trailers and other commercial vehicles, which is expected to slow commuters.
The transition road was closed Monday, Caltrans spokeswoman Judy Gish said.
The repair work is being done by Security Paving Company Inc. of Oxnard.
To expedite the work, the contract contains an incentive/disincentive clause to encourage early completion, Caltrans said in an announcement.
Security Paving may earn up to a $2.9 million bonus for completing the $11 million project by or before Nov. 15.
As a disincentive, failure to complete the contract in a 33-day period will cause the contractor to owe the state $150,000 per day for each day of uncompleted work over 33 days plus liquidated damages, Caltrans said.
The project includes slab replacement, concrete barrier and guardrail repair, drainage and landscaping, as well as repairs to the tunnel walls and ceilings, which were charred by burning big rigs, according to Judy Gish of the state Department of Transportation.
(Excerpt) Read more at avpress.com ...
Yep. Job goes to the lowest bidder who can rush the project through the fastest.
America...ya gotta love it...
There is an old saying: “Quality, speed or low cost — choose two”
Perfect.
IIRC, that same company got the nod to rebuild the steel freeway transition overpass in Oakland, CA recently. You may recall that one was reopened just about a month after a tanker truck crashed underneath it. The ensuing fire defied the expert assertions of renowned Structural Engineer Rosie O’Donnell Ph.D (Metallurgy), melted the steel, and dropped the span onto the roadway below.
In that kind of work, much of the expense is bound up in having heavy equipment on-site 24/7 whether it’s in-use or not. Well, if you get three shifts going, you maximize your productivity to equipment cost ratio, which can drive down the overall cost of a job pretty substantially compared to working a single 12 or 10 (maybe even 8) hour shift daily. Not saying that's 100% of the reason behind a low bid, but it commonly figures into time-critical projects.
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