Cracks Halt Convention Center Slab Work

Unexpected cracking of surface concrete caused a four-day halt this week in construction of bayfront terraces on San Diego’s $160-million convention center, but the work stoppage is not expected to delay the opening of the center beyond its current Nov. 17 target date, officials said Friday.

The contractor pouring the concrete and the convention center’s architect are blaming each other for the cracks and other deficiencies in parts of the 3- to 4-inch-deep slab that has been poured on the upper-level and mezzanine terraces that face the bay.

The finished concrete, which will cover 300,000 square feet when the center is completed, also is being used on the floor of the facility’s rooftop convention space. Workers have poured about 100,000 square feet so far, said Ron Tutor, president of Tutor-Saliba Inc., the center’s general contractor, which is also pouring the concrete.

Two consultants called in Wednesday by the San Diego Unified Port District, which is building the oft-delayed convention center, determined that the concrete was cracking because it was allowed to dry too fast, said Dan Wilkens, a spokesman for the Port District. When work resumes Monday, humidity in the air around the concrete will be increased, Wilkens said.

Wilkens said the consulting firms did not assess blame for the cracks. “At this point, we’re not trying to place blame, we’re trying to get the topping slab poured,” he said.

Representatives from the firms, Construction Technology Labs Inc. of Arcadia and Leroy Crandall & Associates, a local company, were not available for comment Friday.

Neither Tutor nor Wilkens would say precisely when the work stopped, but Wilkens said it was “within the past week.” All parties involved in the dispute agreed that the cracks were in surface concrete only and in no way threatened the structural integrity of the convention center.

Tutor and Rick Webb, program manager for Convention Center Architects, the joint venture architectural firm that designed the convention center, pointed fingers at each other Friday for what Webb called unacceptable cracking and uneven concrete surfaces.

He said sections of the concrete were out of line, the finished surfaces were too rough and portions of the slab were unacceptably cracked.

“Something has got to be done to improve the quality,” Webb said. “We do not recommend that they accept it as is.”

But Tutor responded in a brief telephone interview from his office in the Sylmar area of Los Angeles that the concrete had been poured to specifications demanded by the architects. He said he had been forced to stop pouring the slab because of the cracks.

“The slabs are cracking because the specifications surrounding its installation are wrong,” Tutor said angrily.

Told of Webb’s comments, he said: “Tell Rick to get his ass out there and finish it himself.”

In a second brief telephone interview, Tutor said he had reached agreement with the Port District that the cracks were attributable to faulty specifications, a contention that Wilkens denied.

However, both men agreed that work would probably resume Monday.

Workers are racing to complete the convention center, originally scheduled to open in 1987, in time for a Nov. 24 grand opening. Delays encountered this year have already forced cancellation and delays of meetings planned for early November by the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau and the San Diego County Restaurant Assn. but so far have not affected conventions booked by out-of-town organizations, beginning in January.