Brightwater lawsuit goes to trial; King County seeking $155 million
Sep 11, 2012, 12:36 PM | Updated: 2:49 pm
Trial begins this week over construction problems that delayed opening of King County’s huge new wastewater treatment plant known as Brightwater.
The county is demanding that a consortium of contractors, Vinci, Parsons, Frontier-Kemper (VPFK) pay $155 million over a broken tunnel boring machine that brought construction at Brightwater to a halt.
“When the contractor put together his proposal for repairs, the county found those unacceptable in terms of cost and the time involved and we essentially elected to have another contractor complete that work,” said county project manager Gunars Sreibers.
“We’re seeking to recover the damages associated with the delays in completing the Brightwater conveyance system that were a result of the problems that the contractor had in that portion of the project.”
The contractor, who has countersued for $47 million, did not return a call for comment.
Jury selection should begin this week.
The almost $2 billion treatment plant, located in south Snohomish County, should be fully operational next month, more than a year-and-a-half behind schedule.
