End Date of Airport Work Still at Issue

More than a year after construction began on John Wayne Airport’s new $50-million passenger terminal, the prime contractor and county officials are still arguing over whether the project will be completed on time.

Taylor Woodrow Construction California Ltd., which is building the two-level, 337,900-square-foot terminal, is now saying that the “substantial completion date” probably will be in mid- to late May, 1990, instead of March 19, 1990, as had been forecast earlier, according to an Aug. 7 letter from Taylor Woodrow to airport project managers.

The building is scheduled to open for business on April 1, 1990, and county officials fear that too many delays could cause a loss in airport revenue needed to repay construction bonds.

County officials, however, said last week that they strongly disagree with Taylor Woodrow’s estimated completion date. In a reply to Taylor Woodrow dated Aug. 23, Costa Mesa-based HPV--the consulting firm hired by the county to manage the project--said that “numerous opportunities exist to accelerate production and maintain or improve schedules, but these opportunities are being overlooked at the expense of maintaining a defensive posture in anticipation of failure.”

‘Cushion’ Exists

Alan Murphy, a member of the county airport staff assigned to supervise the project, said he does not foresee any rescheduling of the April 1 terminal opening. If the new terminal does not open on that date, he said, a two- to three-month “cushion” exists before repayment of airport construction bonds becomes a problem.

The airport project has been beset by controversy since last year, when Taylor Woodrow’s low bid for the construction work came in at $59.7 million--$19 million higher than expected. At the same time, the project architect was fined for errors and delays.

Meanwhile, airport documents showed last week that a number of related contracts have escalated in cost by amounts ranging from a few thousand dollars to more than $1 million, mostly due to on-site construction problems. For example, Geofon Inc.’s contract for site preparation went up 203.2%, from $750,000 to $2,273,665: in the midst of pumping away some ground water, officials found that it was contaminated. The water had to be pumped through a special filtering system and removed.

Murphy, however, said that all such contract increases are within the airport’s overall, $310-million expansion budget, which has a built-in allowance for contingencies.

Airport documents also showed last week that HPV and Taylor Woodrow have been feuding over a number of issues in recent weeks, including bills to the county for speeding delivery of the terminal’s steel superstructure, the buckling of several curved metal roof panels, and cracks and empty spaces found in the building’s concrete floors.

Murphy said that the bill for steel delivery will be negotiated downward, the buckling of roof panels is an “appearance” matter unrelated to safety, and the concrete flooring has been repaired to the satisfaction of county building inspectors.

The new terminal is part of a larger expansion program that also includes new parking garages, roadways, aprons and taxiways.