Two insurance companies are suing the MBTA, saying that the agency kept changing the plans for the Wollaston station overhaul.  An MBTA image

Wollaston Red Line station passenger platform
A Quincy Quarry News file photo

MBTA sued for more than $8 million over the delayed Wollaston project by insurance companies.

The South Shore broadsheet reports that the insurance companies that took on project completion bonds on the Wollaston Red Line MBTA station reconstruction project are now taking the T to court.

The reason for litigation is premised on the insurance companies having to take over control of the Wollaston Red Line station reconstruction project when things allegedly went south.

Such a takeover is a relatively rare event and is typically triggered when the general contractor on such a project fails to deliver the goods contracted.

Escalating project costs?
A Quincy Quarry News file photo

That and as near as Quincy Quarry News can tell, the announcement of the lawsuit is the first official acknowledgment that the insurance companies took over the Wollaston station project after the contractor was booted off the job and then replaced by another construction firm.

Accordingly, Quincy Quarry can thus only properly note that the booted contractor is the arguable phoenix of Modern Continental of Big Dig infamy.

That and how the booted company is headed by the son of the founder of Modern as well as was pretty much the person in charge of Modern during its time working on the dig.

Even so, at the time the bid for Wollaton station reconstruction was let, the contractor was viewed as a qualified bidder after taking on a large Italian construction company as a joint venture partner so that peeps from the old country could endeavor to expand their presence in the US construction market.

A family business
An American Zoetrope image

Apparently, MBTA officials felt what could possibly go wrong given such a joint partnership.

Even so, it is the Quarry’s long-ongoing understanding that the next best bidder challenged the awarding of the bid. 

After all, the bid challenger’s bid price was close, the challenger has a solid record of doing good work for the T on time as well as on budget, etc., the challenger felt that it should have been given some bonus points to offset its slightly higher price. 

Plus, the firm that was awarded the contract did not appear to have ever previously taken on such a complex project.

Tough luck Chuck
A file photo

Valid demurs notwithstanding, the challenge was turned aside.

Even worse, when work began, the Quarry heard word that project management had apparently quit the project early on in the going given concerns that things would not go well and thus take a toll on future employability, if not also professional licensure(s).

In any event, per the South Shore broadsheet’s coverage as well as after a read of the completion bond insurers’ legal brief, both the MBTA and the contractor then proceeded to press for all manner of work change orders which ran up the cost of the project.

Up in smoke, burn baby burn – whatever
A cheatsheet.com image

It would further appear that the MBTA relied on a design/build project design and construction approach and so gave rise to the usual sorts of problems that happen when the less than able undertake the higher risk design/build approach in the hope of speeding completion of a project and/or (perhaps, ed.) saving money.

Apparently, the MBTA either did not learn its lessons from engaging in design/build during the Big Dig or mistakenly believed that it could manage to readily desigh/build a modest above grade Red Line station.

The defendants’ legal team
An old Columbia Pictures image

In any event, surely but coincidences include that Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch is the long ongoing Chair of the MBTA Advisory Board, the canned contractor is a Quincy-based operation, and a senior manager at the City of Quincy’s Department of Public Works is a former bigger dog at Modern Continental.

Regardless, given insurance companies’ usual preference to settle on claims, one can only imagine that in this instance the two companies have a solid brief to press as they go to the mattresses in Suffolk County Superior Court.

Source: Bondholders sue MBTA for more than $8 million over delayed Wollaston project

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