'Protecting the taxpayers': Florida water district sues fired builder on C-43 reservoir project

Lawsuits have been flying as the South Florida Water Management District and its fired contractor quarrel over a soured $560-million deal to build the C-43 reservoir.

Yet work continues at the 10,700-acre Hendry County project, district Executive  Director Drew Bartlett said at Thursday’s governing board meeting. “We have 20 subcontractors working on site, with 150 employees continuing the construction of the reservoir.”

Next step: Hiring a “best-value contractor to start the placement of the soil cement and then we’ll be completely up and running,” Bartlett said.

The contractor, an international group known variously as C-43 Water Management Builders, Lane Construction and Webuild, “simply couldn’t stay on schedule and would not make the necessary changes to get back on schedule or prevent further delays,” district Communications Director Sean Cooley said in a statement.

The builder’s average of 20 extra days per month would mean a more than three-year completion delay, Cooley said. “Such poor performance is contrary to the contract and is unacceptable.”

The contractor fired back, calling those claims “senseless.”

“The district's actions are unfortunately consistent with their history of ill-conceived terminations on this project and others,” said spokeswoman Lauralee Heckman in an emailed statement. ”We maintain it was the district, not the Contractor, who caused significant delays and overruns, and that (we) always acted with integrity, excellence and in the best interests of taxpayers.”

The district also said it was looking out for the taxpayers, who “should not be on the hook for the additional costs now associated with completing the project, and we’ve taken action to recover these additional costs,” Cooley said.

'Directly tied to the wellbeing of the local economy'

Things started out hopefully.

After years of poor water quality in the Caloosahatchee, the river was getting its own reservoir, a giant inland lake that would help store water that could be released at key times to help the estuary stay healthy.

There were some initial challenges. Calusa Waterkeeper and others questioned how water would be kept algae-free enough to not further pollute the river, a treatment component was added, but the consensus was that the project was a good start to fixing the system's chronic woes as part of a much larger Everglades restoration strategy.

In 2017, the district projected a 2022 completion date. In 2019, when it hired the contractor, the finish line moved to July 2024, later pushed to October of that year.

And then came the delays: COVID, labor shortages, supply chain challenges. The contractor asked for and the district granted extension after extension, until it became plain, the district says, that the trouble was dire.

In March, it sent the contractor a final warning in the form of a cure notice.

The contractor promised to get back on track.

By May, things weren’t better, so the district fired them.

It was a difficult decision, Cooley said, but getting the project done is one of the district’s highest priorities, “given its significance to protecting the Caloosahatchee River and estuary (which) are directly tied to the wellbeing of the local economy and the way of life in Southwest Florida, particularly Lee County. “

Fired: Caloosahatchee reservoir contractor out; district evaluates next steps

Five days after the firing, the contractor filed a federal lawsuit against the district, alleging wrongful termination, a complaint the company later withdrew.

Now, the district is seeking to recover damages for the breach. How much do they want? The district didn’t immediately send a figure, though communications chief Cooley texted that one would be coming.

Meanwhile, “We’re going to continue delivering on the commitments we’ve made to improve our region’s water resources while protecting the taxpayers’ investments in these projects,” Cooley said.

And the contractor is eager for its day in court, Heckman wrote, “Unfortunately, taxpayers will bear the financial impacts of the District's decision to wrongfully terminate (the contractor) as the completion costs will greatly exceed the contract value that WMB locked in with its bid in 2019 prior to COVID … We look forward to defending ourselves against the district's senseless claims.”

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: South Florida Water District sues fired builder on reservoir project