The Billerica Minuteman has published a story today detailing some serious issues experienced during construction of the Parker Elementary School currently being built by CTA Construction.

The paper today published details of a letter sent by an engineering firm on the project regarding shoddy work, poor management and apparent disregard for inspections and corrective suggestions made by those overseeing the project.

Mehul Dhruv, the Principal of Engineers Design Group wrote to the project's architect that they were "extremely concerned with the performance of the General Contractor, their sub-contractors and the quality of their work."

At issue at that time was largely foundation work that was done in cold weather without proper protections which EDG described as "blatant disregard to various requirements and details on the contract documents" and failure "to correct the deficiencies brought to their attention."

Dhruv wrote that CTA "failed to provide any protection against cold weather to the green concrete and subgrade for foundations." The work the contractor did do Dhruv described as "absolutely not acceptable, it violates all the requirements of ACI Cold Weather Protection requirements, violates the contractor's submitted plan for cold weather protection and is totally inadequate in protecting the concrete against cold weather."

Members of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters have been asking questions in town with a 20-foot banner asking "Is the Paker School Safe?" It's a question that concerned Dhruv, as well who wrote that his company was "extremely concerned with the quality of the work performed by the contractor."

Dhruv noted that in addition to shoddy work, the contractor may have been trying to avoid or ignore suggestions that there were problems. "The contractor has not provided adequate time or notice for inspections, leaving insufficient time for correcting the deficiencies noted by the inspector."

It's hard to imagine the very strongly worded letter from the Principal of the engineering company to the Senior Vice President of the Architectural firm was the first attempt to address the issues with CTA and the shoddy work.

Not included in the story is the fact that one of the companies CTA hired to work on the project is prohibited from doing public work. Action Floors was debarred from bidding on or performing any public work for a period of three years in 2009 by the Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents. (see line 3607 of linked spreadsheet)

Billerica Town Manager John Curran issued a statement claiming that any and all deficiencies found by the engineering firm were addressed before construction continued. The question remains how fully they were resolved and at what cost to Billerica taxpayers. And given CTA's apparent blatant disregard for oversight, project quality and acceptance of oversight, it remains to be seen if other letters will come out detailing similar problems with later stages of the project.

Carpenters will also be watching to see how Billerica treats CTA when it comes to grading them on the project. Only two years ago, Fox25 ran an investigative piece about contractors who do shoddy work but get passing grades by essentially blackmailing cities and towns.

Story link: MyFoxBOSTON.com

The Cape Cod Times posted this article about carpenters demonstrating yesterday, including quotes from NERCC Representative Brian Richardson. The target of the demonstration was Advantage Construction, which is undermining the standard for carpenters' wages and benefits while building at Balise Ford in Hyannis. The project is one of several where carpenters have demonstrated in the last few weeks about Advantage Construction.

"We know what they're getting paid and it's significantly less than area standard," said Brian Richardson, a protest participant and the director of organizing for the New England Regional Council of Carpenters.
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In Wednesday's demonstration, about 40 carpenters chanted, waved signs and blew whistles in front of the new Balise Ford location on High School Road, where the dealership is being renovated. Last Friday, about 50 protesters marched outside the recently constructed showroom at Hyannis Toyota on Route 132.

Balise Ford manager Mark Caliri declined to comment on the protest, saying that the issue is between the union and the construction company.

The target of the demonstrations has been Quincy-based Advantage Construction, the construction management company overseeing the work at the two dealerships. Advantage Construction pays workers $20 to $25 per hour, Richardson said — far less than the $50 that he said is the standard hourly rate on Cape Cod.