Big Projects Can Crack Reputations of Mightiest : Public works: Some firms avoid bidding on contracts such as the airport terminal, but others are ‘drawn like a gnat to light.’

It may take squads of lawyers and a couple of years to assess the blame for the construction delays at John Wayne Airport, but one thing is clear: Whoever is at fault, the airport expansion may have singed the reputations of several firms.

It hasn’t made the county look very good either, nor its construction manager, a consortium called HPV.

“Unfortunately, most people, even in the construction industry, form their opinions based on what they read in the newspapers,” said one industry expert familiar with the airport project. “However the thing comes out in court, the damage is already done.”

Taylor Woodrow, the primary contractor, has taken most of the heat recently and, indeed, was fired from one of its two contracts at the airport Tuesday, although it will continue to build the passenger terminal.

The contractor has maintained throughout that it has been unfairly blamed for delays caused by the county and HPV, and that it is building a first-class airport.

But the $300-million airport expansion--the county’s largest public works project ever--was controversial almost from the beginning. “This job started off on the wrong foot,” the expert said.

That was clear three years ago as the county put the construction contract for the new airport terminal out for bid. To everyone’s shock, Taylor Woodrow’s low bid was $59 million--$18 million more than the $41 million the architect had said his plan would cost to build.

Then, in what some experts said was an unusual move, the county voted to go ahead with the project rather than insist that the architect design new plans.

The county said it was in too much of a hurry. It needed to get the airport built before April, 1990, when it would need the money the airport would generate to start repaying the bonds that county officials had issued to fund the expansion.

Taylor Woodrow and the architect would bring the costs down as they built, the county said, by taking out extras from the terminal design and using less expensive materials.

Later the county would commission an independent consultant to find out what had gone wrong. The consultant reported that the architect, Leason Pomeroy Associates of Orange, and Pomeroy’s own high-powered consultant--Lee Saylor Inc. of Concord--had inexplicably underestimated the cost of various construction materials by millions of dollars.

After The Times obtained and published the study in 1988, Leason Pomeroy agreed not to charge the county for $775,000 in design work. The firm, one of the largest architectural companies in the county, later changed its name to LPA, although the firm said the change had nothing to do with the unfavorable publicity over the airport.

Some architects and construction companies shy away from public works projects, particularly such high-profile ones as an airport terminal. Others are “drawn like a gnat to light,” said Ted Gropman, a lawyer with the Los Angeles law firm of Acret, Gropman & Turner, a prominent firm in construction law.

Some desire the publicity of a high-profile project, Gropman said, figuring that it will lead to other work. Others have a more cynical motive: In a project where it is clear there are lots of problems, some firms see opportunities for extra profits, Gropman said, and may even “low-ball” a bid to get in on the project.

Said the head of another Southern California construction company: “I wouldn’t have anything to do with a public works project because you can never tell how smart the government people are that you’re going to be dealing with.

“But there are guys who’re preparing the first batch of change orders even before they’ve signed the construction contract.”

These people hasten to say they have no idea what motivated Taylor Woodrow to take on the airport job, and say the company has had a good reputation.

Taylor Woodrow PLC is a giant British conglomerate headquartered in London that--like other British construction giants--turned increasingly to the U.S. market when their construction business worldwide began falling off, especially in the oil countries of the Middle East. The parent company is one of five British contractors building a tunnel under the English Channel, one of the largest public works projects in history. The company did about $2.2 billion worth of business last year.

Another Taylor Woodrow subsidiary began building homes in Southern California in 1977, and is now a medium-sized builder here.