Construction Angels would like to repost the informational email from Bob Burleson, President of Florida Transportation Builders Association: Last Monday Channel 10 WTSP in Tampa/St. Pete aired an editorial by their President and General Manager, Elliot Wiser. I felt the editorial was very unfair and played pretty loose with the facts. The link to Mr. Wiser’s editorial is wtsp/story/opinion/2014/07/14/editorial-tampa-bay-construction/12536551/ My response to Mr. Wiser is below: Dear Mr. Wiser, Your recent editorial described your frustration with the amount of time it has taken to complete US 19 in Pinellas County. No doubt, many citizens, particularly affected business owners, share your frustrations. I believe its important, however, to consider the context and understand all the facts. Contractors make money when they can work at a fast pace with no interruptions. Trust me, no contractor likes to work at a slow pace. They lose money when their equipment isnt running and their people are sitting idle. You stated in your editorial that the US 19 project was originally scheduled to be completed in the Fall of 2013. When the US 19 contract was originally announced FDOT anticipated an earlier start which would have meant a Fall 2013 completion. The actual start of the project was pushed back about 9 months due to budget and utility issues. During this 9 month period there was no construction and no disruption to traffic or business. The original completion date was June 2014, before any time extensions for weather or other issues were taken into account. Nonetheless, I agree that industry and government alike could do a better job of communicating actual anticipated completion versus original contract time. Years ago, FDOT decided it was better to grant time extensions on a case-by-case basis for weather, holidays or unforeseen underground conditions than to estimate these occurrences and add time in the beginning. Contractors are granted an additional day for any day where the weather does not allow them to work. If contractors are able to work in the rain, they do not gain additional time. But contractors cannot control the weather, and you yourself noted the regularity of summer storms. Utilities are another huge issue with any road project. Many utilities must be relocated prior to the contractor beginning the road work. Believe it or not, utilities do not always know exactly where their lines are, particularly the very old ones. Recent improvements in technology have made huge improvements in this area, but unknown conflicts still arise and cause delays. It might surprise you to know that neither FDOT nor the contractor have any real ability to push a public utility to a faster completion. In general, utilities do a reasonable job but they work at their own pace. Seldom do they entertain requests for acceleration. Keep in mind that these utilities must continue to maintain service while doing their relocations. A contractor has no way of estimating delays that may occur due to a utility conflict that was unknown at the time of bid. I also feel obligated to correct your assertion that FDOT does not demand accountability from transportation contractors. That too is simply false. FDOT has legislatively mandated performance standards that contractors must meet. Here are a few facts you may not be aware of. Contractors submit bids to FDOT and the price they submit is the price they must do the job for. Yes, there are cost additions or deletions due to added / deleted work, but the bid is essentially a fixed bid. When contractors receive a weather day of time extension, they receive no additional money for the lost payroll paid during the rainout. The contractor also does not receive additional money for any work that must be re-done due to weather impacts. Should costs for materials, equipment or labor increase during the contract, the contractor receives no additional compensation. Thirty years ago, FDOT did institute a price adjustment for fuel (gas and diesel) and liquid asphalt. Each job has a base price tied to price of oil at time of bid and is adjusted up or down during the job based on the monthly price. As often as not, the contractor is paying money back to the Department for this. All other cost increases are born by the contractor. That is real accountability. Additionally, FDOT provides accountability to the taxpayers through the Florida Transportation Commission, which conducts regular public meetings. Former State Senator Jim Sebesta is a member of the Commission from your area. Years ago FDOT established a contract incentive known as the no excuse bonus for use on certain projects. No excuse means exactly that. The contractor receives no time extensions for any reason, including weather, holidays, utility delays or any other delay. In return there is a bonus given the contractor for completing the project within the original contract time. At the time this project was bid FDOT was not putting incentives in contracts due to budget constraints. In an effort to respond to local business owner complaints and speed up completion of the US 19 project, FDOT met with the contractor and negotiated a no excuse contract provision. The contractor was under no obligation to do this. In return for accelerating the project, the contractor will be paid incentives upon reaching milestones along the way. The incentives are not simply a gift to the contractor. In order to complete the job 6 months earlier (March 2015) than otherwise would have been the case, the contractor must hire additional subcontractors at higher prices, pay more money for quicker delivery of materials, pay more overtime and assume the risks for weather and other unforeseen conditions. I believe the next milestone is in October. If he fails to meet the milestone he gets no incentive, yet he has spent considerable extra dollars. That is real accountability. On all projects the contractor is assessed liquidated damages when a job exceeds contract time. On the US 19 job, the FDOT may levy liquidated damages in excess of $10,000 per day. Since 1995, FDOT has collected almost $70 million in liquidated damages from contractors. Years ago, road building was much simpler than it is today. Most construction was new location, meaning contractors could build a road with little, if any, interference from traffic and almost no impact on businesses. My company actually built much of I-75 in south Hillsborough County and Manatee County in the 70s and 80s in your viewing area. Today, road construction is a much different proposition. I compare a project like US 19 to remodeling your kitchen, while at the same time trying to prepare dinner each night. It is not easy. If the contractors were allowed to close US 19, the job would be completed in much less time. Obviously, that is not feasible. In closing, let me say that I care deeply about the industry I am a part of and am so very proud of the improvements we continually provide to the quality of life for all Floridians. The people that work in this industry are hard workers and do their best each and every day to provide quality transportation infrastructure. Certainly we can improve what we do and we are always open to suggestions for improvement. We continually look at ourselves to see how we can do better. Communication with the public is one area in which the industry is trying to improve. Thank you for your time. I would welcome the opportunity to sit with you at any time and discuss road building in general or any specific project. I hope you will consider posting my response on your Channel 10 website. Bob Burleson Bob Burleson is President of the Florida Transportation Builders Association (FTBA,) the statewide association representing contractors, engineers, material suppliers, equipment dealers and others within the transportation construction industry. He has held this position for 25 years, prior to which he spent 15 years working for a family-owned road building company. *******Thank you for your comment, Bob. I also wanted to note: There are more safety dangers involved for our construction workers who are trying to complete a job on the original contract time. Construction workers end up working very long hours for the duration of the job to complete by the original deadline. Thank you, Kristi Ronyak
Posted on: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 19:07:17 +0000
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