News

Pike, AOT get an earful over Route 103 paving

By KEITH WHITCOMB Jr.
Staff Writer Rutland Herald
LUDLOW, Vt. — Pike Industries and the Vt. Agency of Transportation said Monday, in front of a roomful of unhappy locals, that neither are happy with the Route 103 paving job, and plan to have it fixed by early July.

Last year, Pike Industries began resurfacing a 38-mile stretch of Route 103 between Rockingham and Clarendon. The project wasn’t completed before cold weather set in, and efforts to prepare the road for winter didn’t satisfy locals, who’d been frustrated with other aspects of the project all summer.

On Monday at Ludlow Town Hall, about 50 people gathered to hear an explanation from Pike Industries employees and leaders within the Agency of Transportation. The meeting was organized by State Rep. Logan Nicoll, D-Ludlow, and moderated by resident Martin Nitka.

From Pike were Tyson Chouinard, contract administrator, and Marketing Vice President Jay Perkins.

From AOT were Chief Engineer Wayne Symonds and Construction Engineer Jeremy Reed.

Chouinard said starting April 15, surface preparation will begin and last about a month. It should all be wrapped up by approximately July 1.

Perkins reiterated some past explanations for the project’s delay, namely the weather, was wetter than expected.

“We didn’t have five days of paving in a row since the third week of July,” he said.

He said Pike tried to “button up” the project for winter, but by then it was too cold for the line paint to stick.

Several residents claimed the Pike paver was gone for several weeks, though estimates as to how many were varied.

“Today, I can tell you, it probably shouldn’t have left the job for six weeks,” Perkins said. “We also didn’t realize we were going to have 21 days of rain from September to October, but a typical fall would’ve allowed us plenty of time to do what we needed to do, and we didn’t get a typical fall. … Would we have made a different decision if we had known how the fall was going to be? Absolutely.”

People wanted to know if there would be penalties imposed on Pike for the delay.

“This contract does not call for penalties,” Symonds said. “Penalties are sort of perceived as a punishment. There are, though, liquidated damage provisions within the contract that allow (AOT) to recover costs associated with the extra duration of the contract. Right now, I can’t tell you how much that might be. We need to see how Pike progresses and then take a look at what weather days might have been excluded from their ability to work next summer.”

Perkins said Pike has paid such damages in the past.

“Not every project we do gets done on time,” he said. “We know going in as a contractor that if you don’t do what you say you’re going to do within the allotted time, then you pay damages. We’re not afraid of damages. We try to get it done early and not pay any, because it feels better when you’re done before the completion date and not after.”

He said Pike expects to pay some level of damages by the time this job is complete.

Symonds said the project bid by Pike, accepted in December 2017, was for $8 million. He and Reed estimated about three-fourths of that has been paid to Pike.

Virginia Gunderson, of Shrewsbury, said she’s lived there since 1984 and regularly travels a section of Route 103.

“I’ve lived here for 34 years and quite honestly I blame both the state and the paving company for the disaster that happened this summer. I travel Route 103 all the time. I couldn’t believe it when you started digging it up in August. I kept wondering, gee, maybe I should go the back way in Shrewsbury because I’m sure they’re going to be working. They tore it up. They’re not going to leave it this way, and I never had to make those detours because nobody was ever working. I walk every day, and I hear the excuses about the weather, and I’m not buying it,” she said. “My feeling is the state decided to do too many projects this summer. No matter where you went, there were signs everywhere.”

Gunderson said she would prefer the state do smaller sections and get them done rather than leave large areas incomplete.

She said the lack of road markings is of particular concern when it comes to visitors who don’t know the lay of the road as well as locals.

“What happened out on 103 is not in any way acceptable to us, either,” Symonds said.

He denied that the state had ordered more paving work than could be handled. For the past six years, Symonds said, the state has bid out $100 million in paving projects.

Symonds said that AOT has learned some lessons on this project, among them that using new paving techniques designed to extend the life of the work added to the time it took.

At the start of the meeting, Perkins went over in detail a few of the newer paving techniques that required special equipment.

“Maybe we should have cut this project in half and tried to do it over two years,” Symonds said. “I don’t disagree with you that we hold some responsibility for that, but I also do think when we try innovative techniques and approaches we can learn from them, and I like to think we don’t make the same mistake twice.”

Symonds said with regard to how much this will all cost taxpayers that Pike is getting paid a fixed price.

“We have spent some additional money on this project to try and make it as safe as we can, and to not lose the durability we were hoping to get,” he said. “To your point about shared responsibility, I think that’s what we’re going to be talking about. There was some extra quantity for the leveling that was done out there, and we haven’t settled exactly on how much that’s going to be and how that’s going to be paid for, but it’s something that we are taking seriously, and we’ll be looking at that to try and bring this project in as close to budget as we can.”

 

keith.whitcomb

@rutlandherald.com

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