Contractor leaves $1.2M Fayetteville sidewalk project unfinished. What happens now?

Paul Woolverton, Fayetteville Observer
·2 min read

Residents in the neighborhoods off Rosehill Road in northeast Fayetteville were supposed to get a 1.2-mile sidewalk plus drainage improvements and bus stop pads by July 7.

But on July 7, the Rosehill Road project was only 30% complete, city spokesman Devon Smith said, and the city is looking for a new contractor to finish the job. It aims to get the project finished next summer or fall.

A contractor quit building a 1.2 mile sidewalk from the Food Lion on Rosehill Road to Shaw Mill Road. It stops after a half-mile at Rutledge Drive, across from Trinity Christian School.
A contractor quit building a 1.2 mile sidewalk from the Food Lion on Rosehill Road to Shaw Mill Road. It stops after a half-mile at Rutledge Drive, across from Trinity Christian School.

The previous contractor, Mohammad Construction of Raleigh, and the city mutually agreed to terminate the sidewalk, drainage system and bus stop pad contract, Smith said.

“On July 10, the contractor was removed from the project due to a lack of progress and safety concerns along Rosehill Road,” a city news release says. A woman who answered the telephone at Mohammad Construction on Friday said a subcontractor had quit the project and the company had been unable to find a replacement.

As for the safety concerns, “The contractor was not able to backfill some areas of the project that washed out after a heavy rain event,” Smith said. To prevent further damage, the city and the North Carolina Department of Transportation stabilized the areas, he said.

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The sidewalk is supposed to run 1.2 miles from the Food Lion shopping center on Rosehill Road at Country Club Drive to Shaw Mill Road. It starts at the shopping center but comes to an end after half a mile at the Rutledge Drive entrance to the Hillendale neighborhood. This is across the street from Trinity Christian School of Fayetteville. Concrete drainage pipes are stacked nearby, awaiting installation in the ground.

A Google Street View photo taken in July just past the end of the sidewalk shows a man walking on the edge of the street next to new curbing and a stretch of shoulder that was partly prepped for installation of the next section of sidewalk.

Mohammad Construction won the contract in June 2022 with a bid of $1.2 million, according to a City Council document. The next higher bid was $1.96 million from Lanier Construction Co. of Snow Hill.

Fayetteville paid $300,000 to Mohammad Construction for the portion of the job it finished, Smith said.

The city will put the remaining portions of the project up for bid and anticipates a new contractor will start work in early 2024, with a target of completing the job in six months, Smith said. It is still being assessed as to whether the total cost in the end will be higher than when the City Council approved Mohammad Construction’s $1.2 million bid, Smith said.

Senior North Carolina reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710 and pwoolverton@fayobserver.com.

The contractor was supposed to install sidewalk, drainage pipes and bus stop pads.
The contractor was supposed to install sidewalk, drainage pipes and bus stop pads.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Fayetteville $1.2M sidewalk project halted after contractor departs