[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Foulger-Pratt used a sub-contractor to pour the concrete -- La Plata based Facchina Construction.

Must...stifle...Mafia...jokes...

Maryland "Freak State" PING!

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

I’d like an explanation of how one can increase the thickness (not just the thickness, but the structural strength implied by the thickness) of poured concrete roadway/trafficway without tearing the whole freaking thing out and rebuilding it.

(Hint: I already know the answer)

[SaraJohnson]

Are we still in the United States? This is something that happens in foreign countries...

[YHAOS]

". . . the county will not be on the hook for the mistake, and that the contractor will have to make up the difference."

Get ready for a protracted delay.

[Razzz42]

Even if it was poured as originally planned and passed inspection...then collapsed, is the City or County on the hook for missing some specifications during inspections? Hell no.

Did it have the required amount of steel/rebar reinforcement in the pours? 1 1/2” missing in a slab means rebar must not have prescribed clearance and distance from the surface and from each other. Just minor details. Engineer/architect will say it was over designed to begin with and less concrete makes it lighter.

[BobL]

“”Specifications for the project called for there to be 10 inches of concrete. The analysis that has been done has shown that for significant portions of the second floor and the third floor, there’s only eight and a half inches,” Berliner said.”

Any DINGBAT paying for the work should be checking concrete depth BEFORE it’s poured. Oh, yea, it was probably an Affirmative Action person doing that.

[Right Wing Assault]

Eight and a half is the new ten.

Hey, this project is a great job creator. What a concept. build it wrong, tear it down, build it again. Three times the jobs of just doing it right the first time.

Union got this stuff figured out a long time ago.

[Right Wing Assault]

Eight and a half is the new ten.

Hey, this project is a great job creator. What a concept. build it wrong, tear it down, build it again. Three times the jobs of just doing it right the first time.

Union got this stuff figured out a long time ago.

[philman_36]

This is the end result of bad inspectors...period!
Auditors find rampant problems in highway construction inspections
Construction inspection services contracts were often missing several critical pieces of information that could be used to ensure the state was getting its money’s worth. Auditors found that contracts had no scopes of work – detailed lists of tasks that must be done under the contract.

Depth, width, length...that's it! Inspectors do the paper work and the company gets paid.
And we're not even considering that forms come in set heights!

So if it wasn't the right form height then the wrong forms were deliberately used to make the contractor more money.
And if they used a slipform paver then they had to know the specific depth to even set the machine up to lay the road!

Corruption, collusion and fraud, all the way, IMO.

[ncfool]

GREAT UNION CONTRACTOR.

[driftdiver]

I’ve spoken with numerous large govt contractors that bid on contracts assuming they’ll only deliver 80% of the RFP. Its the only way to be competitive on price.

So they got 8 1/2 inches of concrete where the spcs say 10, which is 85%. Seems they got an extra 5%.

[Razzz42]

“...Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Bechtel expanded its energy engineering activities. In 1963, Bechtel began construction of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in California. However the company was embarrassed in 1977 when it installed a 420-ton nuclear-reactor vessel backwards at the power plant in San Onofre.[4]...”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechtel

[Razzz42]

Maryland Community News Online ......... washingtonpost.com