A project to rebuild an 8-mile stretch of eastbound Interstate 44 in central Missouri from Rolla to St. James has hit a roadblock. Quality control issues were found with newly poured concrete there. According to Acting MoDOT Director Ed Hassinger, the errors need to be corrected, which requires more time.
“Through our inspection that the contractor has not met the plans and specifications that were lined out in the contract that they signed,” he said. “Where we are today is that they have the opportunity to rectify the situation, that’s what the contract calls for. We will not accept a product that’s not what we contracted for.”
The Missouri Department of Transportation said that Capital Paving and Construction is on the hook for the mistakes, which they will rectify.
“We do have liquidated damages in their contract which basically, for every day they go over, they pay a certain amount of money,” Hassinger said. “That is not to be punitive to the contractor. That is really just a tool to make sure that they pursue the project to complete it and, in this case, pursue the correction to get the product that they contracted to provide.”
The extent of the issue and repair costs are not yet known.
“This will have potentially some, I’m not going to say significant delays, we haven’t seen their proposal, but I think we know this is not an isolated incident that can be corrected quickly,” he said. “It’s a pretty widespread problem that’s going to take some time and effort to correct.”
It’s part of a larger 52-mile rehabilitation project from Rolla to Cuba, which began in April of 2022.
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