The Florida Department of Transportation in 2017 had a dream: for $802 million, South Florida would by now have a smoothly flowing interchange where three of its busiest roadways meet, accented by a glorious, 1,000-foot-long “signature” bridge over Biscayne Boulevard – all of it completed in just four years, by 2021.
Now it is a bridge of broken dreams, with a completion date – for now – of 2029, and the joint venture chosen by FDOT to lead the project claiming in lawsuits design errors and defective concrete have cost it more than $400 million.
That unfinished signature bridge – dubbed “The Fountain” by its builders – is so far spewing just yearslong delays and millions of dollars in legal battles over who is to blame and who should pay for it.
Drivers who venture into the I-95/I-395/SR-836 project area, meanwhile, have not been told – until now – the full story of why the main contractor says they are left negotiating lane shifts, ramp changes and road closures for years longer than FDOT and its partner, the Greater Miami Expressway Authority, envisioned.
“It’s horrible, “Jasmine Whitfield told NBC6, referring to the traffic in the area. “So what I had to do was get off of the highway to get back on to avoid at least 100 cars at this point.”
“It’s a mess,” another driver added.
FDOT has in the past cited many reasons for the delay: bad weather, supply chain issues, utility relocation – and a bid protest filed by a losing joint venture that set things back a year.
Various documents and statements since the entire project’s inception have included completion dates of 2021, 2023, 2027 and now 2029 – maybe.
But litigation reviewed by NBC6 Investigates reveals the winning joint venture cites other reasons for the delay: the engineering firm hired by the joint venture to design the bridge miscalculated the wind loads.
So those spider-leg-like arches above the signature bridge would not have been able to withstand the high winds it could be expected to face of up to 140 mph, according to lawsuits filed by the Archer Western-De Moya Joint Venture, which was awarded the contract in 2017. A big no-no in a place where hurricanes are part of life.
After the errors were discovered — before construction began — the Nebraska-based engineering firm called HDR Engineering Inc. redesigned the bridge to meet the FDOT wind load specifications, the lawsuits state.
But it came at a cost.
We take a closer look at a massive project you’ve probably experienced on your commute around town – Miami’s Signature Bridge.
The joint venture (or JV) alleges “multiple years” of delay in construction and “$405 million in increased design costs, construction costs, supervision costs, quality control and inspection costs, expert investigation costs, and attorneys’ fees,” according to a lawsuit JV filed against one of its insurance companies.
Nicholas Duran is the policy and advocacy manager for Transit Alliance Miami, a non-for-profit organization that promotes alternative modes of transportation besides a personal car. He’s been critical of the project since the beginning, calling it a “boondoggle.”
“I’m not exactly surprised,” Duran said, referring to the allegations in the lawsuit. “It really does speak to the reason why we’ve seen so many delays with this project.”
In court filings, HDR denied the allegations and said the original drawings were “a conceptual, preliminary design of the Signature Bridge for purposes of submitting a competitive proposal to FDOT. The preliminary design represents approximately 20% to 30% completed drawings and is not intended to be used for purposes of construction.”
But the JV said it was used by it to calculate how much it would bill FDOT for the entire project. Since the design-build contract between the JV and FDOT guaranteed a lump-sum price, with some exceptions, the JV — two private companies which joined to create the venture to bid on the project — is so far bearing much of the financial burden of those costs, less whatever it can recover in an ongoing lawsuit against several of its insurers, its lawsuits claim.
“This is a taxpayer-funded project,” Duran said. “We want accountability.”
But taxpayers may not be on the hook for the extra costs, according to the complaint against HDR, which states the contract with FDOT “does not permit the JV to obtain additional compensation on account of errors and omissions in the Preliminary Design Documents or associated construction documents.”
NBC6 asked the FDOT if the JV has filed a claim or is otherwise seeking to have the state and taxpayers pay for any of the alleged $405 million in additional costs, but the agency did not answer that question and several others regarding the safety of the structure.
The state agency also declined our request for an on-camera interview. A FDOT spokesperson wrote in an email, “The Department was not a party to this lawsuit as it was an internal dispute within their respective team.” She went on to say, “Maintaining a full commitment to safety is of the utmost importance for FDOT, and the Department continues to work closely with the project’s leadership to ensure FDOT’s rigorous safety standards remain a top priority throughout the life of the project.”
The JV states it also lost another $3.6 million due to a mechanical failure in one of two concrete plants it erected at the work site, leading to defective concrete being poured into “roadway segments, piers, piles, footings, and seal slabs” over as long as three months before it was detected and the plant shut down in November 2020, according to a since-settled lawsuit the JV filed against one of its insurance companies.
The concrete, adulterated because a broken valve caused too much fly ash to be added to the mixture, damaged “concrete, rebar, forms, structures, and other building components,” the JV alleged, adding “repairs involved removal and destruction of these items, as well as modifications and strengthening in other areas.”
But it was the alleged negligence of the project engineer, HDR Engineering Inc., that created delays before the first shovel entered the ground, according to the JV.
The signature bridge over NE 2nd Avenue and Biscayne Boulevard will be the focal point of a much larger project that includes reconstruction of I-395 and elevated roadways from the 836 interchange at NW 17th Avenue to the MacArthur Causeway bridge, and improvements to I-95 between NW 8th Street and NW 29th Street
The lawsuit against HDR says its senior engineer at the time “used the wrong code for wind calculations … used the wrong gust factor and drag coefficient and had no expertise with wind calculations.” The parties settled the lawsuit on the eve of trial after a judge ruled that JV could only possibly recover a maximum of $10 million — the limits of the insurance policy HDR was required to obtain — on its negligence claim. HDR did not admit liability or fault as part of the settlement, court records state.
The JV had sought more damages based on HDR’s alleged “gross negligence,” but the judge ruled there was insufficient evidence of that for that claim to be considered at trial.
Now the JV is suing several of its insurers, seeking to recover as much of its alleged $405 million in extra costs it attributes to HDR’s alleged negligence as possible. The lawsuit says the JV submitted its proposal to FDOT and agreed to a guaranteed maximum price it would charge for the project based on what it claims was the flawed calculations by HDR.
“In short, HDR designed an aesthetically beautiful bridge that was exactly the sort of signature architectural element FDOT was looking for, but one that was not viable as originally designed due to the inability to withstand applicable wind forces,” the JV alleged in the lawsuit against insurance companies that provided it $125 million in coverage.
“Unfortunately, by the time HDR realized its error, it had already certified that the Signature Bridge design was viable and would not be altered in any substantial manner, the JV’s bid had already been approved, and the unmodifiable lump sum price the JV would be paid to deliver the bridge had already been finalized,” the lawsuit states.
The area around I-395 in Downtown Miami is getting a brand new look with the construction of a massive structure called the Signature Bridge.
Once the alleged mistakes in the preliminary plans were disclosed by HDR, one of the JV’s lawsuits states, HDR changed the design to include “widening the arch ribs to allow for installation of additional post-tensioning and reinforcing steel.” FDOT approved the changes in May 2019, but by then “10 of the 18 months of the project schedule designated for design activities had already elapsed,” the lawsuit claims.
And, the JV alleged, those changes “drastically increased the complexity of construction, increasing steel, post-tensioning and concrete quantities, requiring additional shoring, anchoring, scaffolding, and temporary support measures, compelling additional coordination and supervision in order to complete the Project.”
It also increased the costs, but by then the JV and FDOT had a deal for a lump-sum maximum price of $802 million and, the JV’s lawsuit states, “FDOT insisted that the JV honor those requirements by whatever means necessary, obligating the JV to build the Signature Bridge at a cost dramatically greater than originally projected, based on HDR’s original certified design, without any recourse to the JV to renegotiate the Design-Build Contract price.”
HDR declined to comment, referring us to FDOT, which didn’t answer our detailed list of questions.
NBC6 also contacted the joint venture to ask about the lawsuits. Archer Western referred us to FDOT while a representative for De Moya told us they couldn’t help us with our request.
Duran has a message for those involved in the project.
“We want to make sure that this project moves forward as it’s supposed to. And we want to make sure that you know any issues that the public should anticipate that those are being communicated to the public transparently,” Duran said, “I believe that we as taxpayers deserve that transparency.”
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