Source: http://enr.construction.com, May 19, 2015
By: Scott Judy
Contractors and insurers involved with a $22.5-million Miami Dade College parking garage project that partially collapsed during construction in October 2012 have agreed to pay the school roughly $26.5 million to rebuild the entire structure, according to a settlement reached May 6. Additionally, the contractors forgave an unspecified amount in payment claims previously filed with the school.
Six months after the collapse, which killed four workers, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) proposed $38,360 in penalties against five firms involved in the project. At that time, OSHA noted some of the structure’s columns lacked the required welds; were grouted improperly; or were braced incorrectly.
The insurance payment—due within 30 days of the settlement—was divided up five ways, with Hartford Fire Insurance Co., the project’s builders’ risk insurance carrier, agreeing to pay a total of nearly $10.3 million. Included within Hartford’s total was nearly $4.85 million for direct physical loss.
The next-highest amount, $8.7 million, was assigned to Coreslab Structures and its subsidiary, Solar Erectors, along with their insurers. Of that amount, Coreslab and Solar—which together supplied and erected the garage’s precast concrete members—will pay just over $2 million. The companies’ insurer, United States Fire Insurance Co., will cover $4 million of the payment, while Alterra Excess & Surplus Insurance Co. and Indian Harbor Insurance Co. contribute to a $1.75 million payment.
General contractor Ajax Building Co., will be responsible for $3.66 million of the $26.5-million total.
In October 2013, Miami Dade College sued Ajax, its insurer and six subcontractors in state court, claiming that the collapse “rendered the remaining portion … unsafe, unusable and not reparable to contractual tolerances or aesthetics.”
The main dispute between the college and the builders was whether the collapsed, 88,000-sq-ft section of garage—which measured 520,000 sq ft in total—could be repaired, says the college’s attorney, Stuart Sobel.
“The hard part of the case was getting everybody to agree that it really couldn’t be repaired adequately,” Sobel says. “That’s where the big fight was.”
“It was a good settlement for everyone involved, because it was a potentially difficult and drawn-out litigation,” says Michael Jay Rune II, the attorney for Ajax. Noting that the litigation expense would’ve been “astronomical” with so many parties involved, Rune adds, “Ajax is very pleased to put this behind them.”
While noting that the school was “satisfied” with the legal outcome, spokesman Juan Mendieta notes, “You can’t be pleased with this settlement because lives were lost and it should’ve never happened in the first place.”
Miami Dade College is already moving forward to build a new garage.