The Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff JV, lead designer, was ordered last month to submit documents detailing its role in six cases of cost overruns totalling US$68M on Boston’s Central Artery/Third Harbour Tunnel project (Big Dig).
This comes as the client (Massachusetts Turnpike Authority) and state officials look to recover some of the US$1.6bn in cost overruns. At US$14.6bn, the Big Dig is the largest and most expensive highway project in US history.
Prior to the subpoena, audits of a number of contracts have been reported to show that money had been wasted. The state inspector is reported to have highlighted a US$64M error on just one section of the project.
The Senate also recently passed a measure that will extend the time, available for the state to file claims against Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, from six years to ten.
Bechtel has continued to defend its management of the Big Dig. It has said that it has met contractual standards, and actually saved more than US$1bn on the project by shortening the schedule by a year.
Bechtel said cost overruns were due to a number of factors, from unanticipated underground obstacles, such as buried wharves, to changes made by the state in the scope of the project. More than half of the US$75M worth of alleged Bechtel mistakes was the result of a leak at the Fort Point Channel crossing – an independent consultant later found that Bechtel was not at fault.
Also, it appears that neither the auditors, nor the state department, felt it necessary to stop working with Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff.
Specific contracts that the auditor will be looking at include the electronic security and observation system, which doubled in cost from a US$100M bid to about US$200M.
The Big Dig, which put 12.5km of freeway underground, began construction in 1991. The project’s initial forecast was US$5.8bn.
