Airport Project’s Chief Contractor Faces Conditions : Terminal expansion: County supervisors opt not to fire Taylor Woodrow but hint at tough rules, penalties.

Orange County supervisors have elected not to fire the chief contractor in the beleaguered John Wayne Airport terminal expansion, but they may strip the company of a $25-million contract on an adjacent parking garage and impose strict new conditions on the terminal work, county officials said Thursday.

The parking garage is more than eight months behind schedule, and the contractor could be facing heavy fines as a result. A provision in the garage contract allows the county to fine Taylor Woodrow California Construction Co. $10,000 a day for delays on the garage and an access road to it.

That means the contractor already could face more than $1.6 million in fines, though it has been appealing for an extension.

To be allowed to continue building the terminal, Taylor Woodrow will probably need to meet several new conditions, which are spelled out in a memorandum written by county staff that will be presented to the supervisors next week. They include strict new policies for speeding up work on the terminal project as well as a week-by-week review of Taylor Woodrow’s progress. The regular review will be presented to the supervisors, who will take a new public vote each week on whether to fire the contractor.

“The problem we’ve had out there is that Taylor Woodrow is just not keeping its shoulder to the wheel,” said one county official, who requested anonymity. “That’s been frustrating everybody, and these conditions are going to see that that stops.”

Supervisors have struggled to develop ways of spurring Taylor Woodrow into action short of firing the firm, a move that many officials worried could derail the project indefinitely. Opening of the terminal already has been delayed from April 1 to Sept. 16.

If approved by the supervisors at their regular meeting next Tuesday, a staff proposal to fire Taylor Woodrow from the parking structure contract would represent a blow to the company but would allow it to proceed with the more lucrative terminal construction project, valued at $60 million.

Among the specific conditions that Taylor Woodrow would have to meet are ones requiring that it keep a minimum number of employees on the job at any given time, accelerate the work schedule on some areas of the project to six days a week and 10 hours a day, and adhere to a schedule for paying its subcontractors. Some of the subcontractors currently are far behind in payments from Taylor Woodrow, and this is contributing to substantial delays in the terminal expansion and garage construction.

Taylor Woodrow representatives would not comment Thursday, but County Administrative Officer Ernie Schneider met with them for three hours in his office. Other officials indicated that the company is eager to comply with the county’s requests, adding that some of the proposals for accelerating the work schedule actually originated with Taylor Woodrow in its effort to avoid being fired.

Another element of the county’s new policy involves appointing Murry Cable, assistant chief administrative officer, as a liaison to keep the board apprised of progress on the airport construction. Cable’s appointment to that post comes in response to a request from Airport Manager George Rebella, but officials also said that it reflects the board’s lack of confidence in Rebella’s ability to continue overseeing the construction by himself.

Several supervisors declined to discuss the project, saying it was a matter of potential litigation.