Posted on 09/22/2015 7:02:47 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
In a state where four out of five traffic improvement projects bust their original deadlines, Florida transportation officials expect to beat the odds with one of the largest jobs ever undertaken in the Sarasota-Manatee region.
Construction of the state’s first diverging diamond interchange at Interstate 75 and University Parkway, which began Aug. 3 and is set for two years, will end before the September 2017 World Rowing Championships draw tens of thousands of visitors to nearby Nathan Benderson Park, state officials promise.
But the timeline leaves Prince Contracting, the Tampa-based company that won the $74.5 million contract, just one month of wiggle room in an industry where two-month delays are the norm, state Department of Transportation records show.
A Herald-Tribune analysis of 891 recently completed FDOT road-and-bridge projects revealed contractors needed an average of 67 additional days to complete work. Delays grew to 172 days — nearly six months — among projects such as the diverging diamond interchange that are classified as “reconstruction.”
Bad weather, hidden utilities and a litany of other unanticipated challenges routinely slow road work, prompting the FDOT to grant contractors more time. Under normal circumstances, the diverging diamond project would be no exception to this trend.
But this isn’t normal, said FDOT spokesman Robin Stublen.
“I’m absolutely confident we will complete this on time, no exceptions,” Stublen said. “I say this because it’s a high-profile project like no other in the state. Everybody understands that they are under a microscope.”
Buoyed by funding from the state and local governments, the championships are expected to draw an unprecedented influx of international rowers, coaches and spectators who will have enough trouble navigating an unfamiliar city without the extra headache of an unfinished interchange.
They’re also estimated to pump some $13 million in direct spending into the regional economy and generate about $25 million in economic impact overall, raising Southwest Florida's profile.
“This is the biggest international event in our region’s history,” said Virginia Haley, president of Visit Sarasota County. “We will be on the world stage.”
State transportation officials have repeatedly promised Haley and the championships’ organizing committee a functional interchange by the time rowers hit the water Sept. 23, 2017, despite the fact that the FDOT itself described the job as “complex.”
Construction of the diverging diamond interchange involves a daunting list of individual projects that, by themselves, could be considered major, among them adding lanes, widening roads, milling and resurfacing, new bridge construction, bridge rehabilitation, drainage improvements and curb and gutter work, according to Prince’s contract with FDOT.
The new design will alleviate increased congestion at the busy interchange, which has worsened in recent years because of continued growth in Lakewood Ranch to the east and, to the west, the new rowing regatta park and the still expanding University Town Center retail hub.
When completed, it will be the biggest diverging diamond interchange in the United States and a source of pride for Florida, whose governor, Rick Scott, attended the project groundbreaking on Sept. 2. The original groundbreaking, which had been set for Aug. 3, was rained out.
Because of the project’s prominence, all eyes are on Prince, a veteran firm in Florida but a novice at diverging diamonds.
“Prince is very proud and excited to partner with the FDOT on this innovative and unique diverging diamond project, the first of its kind in Florida,” said Prince Vice President Robert Burr in a statement to the Herald-Tribune. “We also look forward to the challenge of completing the project within the contract time, as we have done with all of our past projects, including those with the FDOT.”
But state records show Prince averaging a two-month delay among its 11 ongoing FDOT contracts. Between its two recently completed state jobs, the company finished one nearly three months behind and the other nearly nine months behind.
In Prince’s case, as with most of the contract extensions, FDOT granted the extra time without penalties.
“We do that on purpose,” said David Sadler, director of FDOT’s Office of Construction. “We expect the contracts to be longer than the original contract time because of weather and holidays.”
FDOT estimates the number of days a job should take without considering unexpected variables, such as heavy rains or an unmarked utility that no one knows about until the backhoe hits pipes, Sadler said.
When the unexpected happens, the agency updates the timelines, granting contractors additional days to complete the work.
As long as FDOT keeps its contracts to within 20 percent of their original days-to-completion estimates, Sadler said, the agency is happy.
A 20 percent increase to the diverging diamond project would add 149 days — or about five months — to the work schedule and run smack dab into the World Rowing Championships.
Haley expressed confidence in its timely completion, but the committee is not taking any chances. It has already guaranteed a fleet of buses to shuttle athletes, coaches and support staff between their hotels and Nathan Benderson Park for a worry-free commute.
It’s a big deal, said Paul Blackketter, president of the nonprofit Suncoast Aquatic Nature Center Associates, or SANCA, which runs the rowing park.
“You put your trust in to the system and hope that everything will work out,” he said. “If not, we’ll have a Plan B, but we’re not even thinking about that yet.”
The diverging diamond work is slated to last 745 days, meaning it would end on Aug. 17, 2017. That’s only if crews work eight hours per day, six days per week, rain or shine, holidays be damned, according to FDOT calculations.
To tip the odds in favor of a timely completion, FDOT promised Prince $5 million if it beats that deadline by one month. The incentive shrinks by $200,000 per day until Aug. 16, 2017, when it ends, according to FDOT Project Manager Nik Patel.
“When you got $5 million to do a job on time you pull out all the stops,” Stublen said. “They may be working seven days. They’ll be working nights.”
Indeed, Prince is already working its crews through the night and weekends.
But money can’t buy clear skies, and the National Weather Service predicts an especially wet winter with significantly higher-than-average rainfall.
Blame El Nino, said Tampa-based National Weather Service meteorologist Todd Barron, referring to a warming of the equatorial Pacific Ocean. Climatologists anticipate this season’s El Nino to rival that of the 1997-98 event that created one of the warmest and wettest winters on record.
If predictions prove true, Barron said, Sarasota will see increased rainfall from October through February — normally its dry season.
Even without El Nino, Prince faces weather delays. In the 745-day period between Aug. 3, 2013 and Aug. 17, 2015, precipitation fell, on average, every two to three days in Sarasota, according to historical data from Weather Underground.
At least two days per month saw a half-inch of rain or more in Sarasota, data show. And downpours of an inch or more averaged at least one day per month.
Contractors can, and do, work through heavy rain. But doing so puts their crews, along with motorists, in potential peril, said Fazil T. Najafi, a professor in the Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering at the University of Florida.
Traffic accident rates already increase in construction zones without the added risks of precipitation and nightfall, Najafi said.
Najafi criticized contracts that place incentives on early completion over safety.
“It’s dangerous,” he said. “If they are still trying to go after the money and trying to keep working during the very heavy rain and then that is unsafe for the workers and the traveling public as well as people who work on the job site.”
Stublen dismissed Najafi’s concerns. He said no contractor needlessly puts their work crews or the traveling public at risk, no matter how large the financial incentive. Doing so not only endangers lives but can slow a project, he said, referring to the mandatory work stoppage after construction-zone traffic accidents to allow for a full investigation.
Prince will take no unnecessary risks, he said. And it will complete the diverging-diamond intersection on time — or at least have completed such a substantial portion of it that motorists will believe it is finished.
If the contract goes over, said FDOT District One Secretary Billy Hattaway, it likely will be due to paperwork and final punch-list items that few people will even notice.
Hattaway compared it to building a house, in which workers might get the structure move-in ready weeks before completing the actual contract due to last-minute odds and ends. In the same light, he said, motorists might be traveling on the completed interchange weeks before Prince’s actual work ends.
“When people show up here” for the World Rowing Championships, Hattaway said, “the site will be cleaned up and it won’t look like a construction zone.”
What window do I go to in Vegas to bet the OVER line?
OMG, the WORLD ROWING CHAMPIONSHIPS! That must draw at least as many people to the area as a normal commuting Monday.
Not to mention all the guys standing around every time you drive by the same work site year after year.
They put one of those DD interchanges near me, they actually work quite well.
——As long as FDOT keeps its contracts to within 20 percent of their original days-to-completion estimates, Sadler said, the agency is happy.-——
Try asking for that in a private sector contract.....
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