This past week we received notice of a final test date being conducted by Bechtel on the long delayed Silver Line Phase 1; the last step prior to hand over to WMATA for remaining testing and operations. The project has been delayed nearly 5 months from its initial schedule, and those disruptions stem from a mistake made by a subcontractor of Bechtel who attempted to cut corners and reduce their oversight on signal testing.
Luckily, the process to which a subcontractor’s work is reviewed proved to be effective in noting the error, and prime contractor (Bechtel) began addressing it. That did not, however, make up for the massive delay in the system, which is also costing WMATA $15 million due to lost operation revenue.
The delay is so extraordinary that it has taken some developers in Tysons by complete surprise. Late last year the Tysons Partnership announced they would be holding a festival in Tysons for the opening of the Silver Line (Silver Line Jubilee). In order to avoid rescheduling the event, due to typical delays, they put a date of April 5th on the festival. There might be some egg on their faces now that it has been determined that the earliest the Silver Line will begin operation may be the 1st week of May (and that is with a condensed oversight period by WMATA of 80 days).
To date, Tysons Partnership has not announced any changes in scheduling for the festival, despite the Silver Line’s lack of existence. That could put a real damper on the celebration.
In major infrastructure projects, where a million steps are needed to construct the final product, there is always going to be mistakes and corrections necessary. That is why there are 3 separate rounds of testing that occur to ensure that each involved party can provide quality control over the other. This is on top of the typical review that occurs by each subcontractor of their own work. As someone who works in the world of contracting (luckily not domestically) the typical question that arises as a project ends in delay is “what caused the delay and what was the cost impact?”
It would be hard to have a more clear cut case where a contractor (in this case Bechtel as they are ultimately responsible for all of their subcontractors) is liable for the damages that occurred due to a delay in the project. The damages due to a lack of revenue caused by the delay, $15 million, as well as any other miscellaneous costs that arose from peripheral activities, fall at the feet of Bechtel. There may also be some damages that can be recouped from the contractor if, within the contract, there were specific penalties due to delays in the project, another common element of infrastructure and construction contracts.
Of course all of this is based on the idea that 1) a good contract was created in the formation of the Silver Line and 2) officials have the political will and capacity to confront Bechtel.
Based on the lack of oversight, and wrist slapping to date, I wouldn’t hold my breath.
*Update: we have been informed by Fairfax County that the Silver Line Jubilee is a private event held by the Tysons Partnership.