ENR has reported that EVRAZ North America’s builder Wanzek Construction & the contractor Palmer North America hired to expand Rocky Mountain Steel facility in Pueblo in Colorado to produce lengths of steel rail that were previously not available from US-based plants are accusing each other of breach of contract in a federal lawsuit. In a complaint filed in US District Court in Denver, Palmer North America accuses Wanzek Construction of creating delays immediately after executing the contract. The lawsuit alleges that Wanzek Construction failed to submit a work schedule by a deadline and the schedule it later provided had not been integrated with procurement and contained errors and after falling behind schedule, Wanzek Construction repeatedly refused to prepare a recovery schedule However, Wanzek Construction alleges in a counterclaim that Palmer North America was actually responsible for the delays, claiming the owner did not turn over the site by the date they had agreed on. It said “When Wanzek Construction finally got site access, it found the site preparation contractor had not completed work sufficiently. Wanzek Construction removed more than 70,000 cubic yard of earth from the site before it began construction. Palmer also failed to meet the deadline to turn over design and engineering for the project. As of this month, the design had gone through numerous revisions and is still incomplete, according to the counterclaim.” Palmer North America signed USD302 million contract in May 2021 with Fargo North Dakota based Wanzek Construction to build the long rail plant expansion of its EVRAZ Rocky Mountain Steel facility in Pueblo. The project was originally scheduled to complete in February. As of December, Wanzek says work was about 48% complete. The contractor estimates that work would not finish until February 2024, and at a greater cost. The price of its contracts with submitted change orders now is USD 424 million, and Wanzek estimates the total cost will exceed USD 600 million. In a response to the counterclaim, Palmer reiterates its argument that Wanzek is to blame for the delays.
ENR has reported that EVRAZ North America’s builder Wanzek Construction & the contractor Palmer North America hired to expand Rocky Mountain Steel facility in Pueblo in Colorado to produce lengths of steel rail that were previously not available from US-based plants are accusing each other of breach of contract in a federal lawsuit. In a complaint filed in US District Court in Denver, Palmer North America accuses Wanzek Construction of creating delays immediately after executing the contract. The lawsuit alleges that Wanzek Construction failed to submit a work schedule by a deadline and the schedule it later provided had not been integrated with procurement and contained errors and after falling behind schedule, Wanzek Construction repeatedly refused to prepare a recovery schedule However, Wanzek Construction alleges in a counterclaim that Palmer North America was actually responsible for the delays, claiming the owner did not turn over the site by the date they had agreed on. It said “When Wanzek Construction finally got site access, it found the site preparation contractor had not completed work sufficiently. Wanzek Construction removed more than 70,000 cubic yard of earth from the site before it began construction. Palmer also failed to meet the deadline to turn over design and engineering for the project. As of this month, the design had gone through numerous revisions and is still incomplete, according to the counterclaim.” Palmer North America signed USD302 million contract in May 2021 with Fargo North Dakota based Wanzek Construction to build the long rail plant expansion of its EVRAZ Rocky Mountain Steel facility in Pueblo. The project was originally scheduled to complete in February. As of December, Wanzek says work was about 48% complete. The contractor estimates that work would not finish until February 2024, and at a greater cost. The price of its contracts with submitted change orders now is USD 424 million, and Wanzek estimates the total cost will exceed USD 600 million. In a response to the counterclaim, Palmer reiterates its argument that Wanzek is to blame for the delays.
