"Faulty columns slow MIA plans"

Sunday, April 1, 2001

Faulty columns slow MIA plans
Work on new exit roadway months behind schedule
The delay is having a domino effect, postponing work on expansion of the
lanes near the terminal.
BY TYLER BRIDGES
The Miami (FL) Herald


A multimillion-dollar project to expand the roadway where vehicles leave
Miami International Airport is nearly a year behind schedule and suffering
from cost overruns, according to internal airport documents.

The problem: faulty design and construction of columns supporting the new
upper deck of the exit lanes. Engineers found the columns were prone to
cracking.

The project, which is extending the departure road and curb for a new
terminal that is to be constructed and that will smooth the exit from MIA,
is now supposed to be completed in August, 11 months behind schedule,
according to Dade Aviation Consultants, a private company hired by
Miami-Dade County to manage the overall $6 billion MIA expansion.

The delay on the exit roadway is having a domino effect. It has postponed
the date when work can begin on a further expansion of the departure and
arrival lanes throughout the area in front of the horseshoe-shaped
terminal -- that job has not yet gone out for bid.

The exit roadway delay also is threatening to postpone an expansion of the
terminal on the far end of the airport and the construction of a new
concourse there that is highly desired by United Airlines and Delta.

The delays are inconveniencing drivers leaving the airport departure area,
particularly those who have dropped off passengers at Concourse H, serving
US Airways and Delta. Instead of taking the new wide ramp that is blocked
off by white-and-orange barriers, they must swing to the left around the
barriers into oncoming traffic.

The original price tag the airport agreed to spend for the behind-schedule
roadway job was $28 million. The final tab is unknown because Odebrecht of
Florida, the Brazilian company carrying out the construction work, claims it
is owed an extra $950,000 by the airport.

Those claims, for extra wages paid to workers idled because of delays not
related to the columns, have not been resolved. ``A substantial portion of
it is without merit,'' said Sari Koshetz of Dade Aviation.

Odebrecht is the same firm that built the newest airport parking garage,
known as Park 7, which also opened behind schedule and over budget.

On the roadway project currently under construction, an analysis by Dade
Aviation Consultants determined that Odebrecht and E.N. Bechamps &
Associates, which designed the roadway job and Park 7, shared the
responsibility for the column problems.

Odebrecht and Bechamps are pointing the finger at each other, but have
agreed to redo some of their work.

The project was overseen by Stone & Webster -- which left the job in late
1999 and was replaced by A.D.A. Engineering -- and Dade Aviation
Consultants, which recently replaced its top manager on the job.

``It got to be contentious, and problems weren't being solved,'' said Mark
Massman, who heads Dade Aviation.

Despite the change, relations between Dade Aviation and Odebrecht remain
tense as Dade Aviation rides herd on the construction company.

REPEATED ARGUMENTS

Dade Aviation's new manager, Scott Stewart became embroiled in repeated
arguments Tuesday with Odebrecht's project manager, Luis Arditi Rocha,
during a progress meeting.

``We're not going to discuss it here,'' Stewart told Arditi Rocha during one
of their many disagreements, this one involving repair work to a column.

At another point, another Dade Aviation official, Chris Allen, admonished
Arditi Rocha for allowing one of his subcontractors to repeatedly voice his
disagreements.

``I don't want to hear any more mouth like that,'' Allen said.

Dade Aviation, which has several critics on the Miami-Dade Commission, will
likely face accusations itself that it allowed the delays to occur because
of lax oversight.

``We have been proactive in bringing the parties together and bringing
resolution to the issues,'' Massman said, while acknowledging criticism that
his firm signed off on the faulty roadway design.

Work on the project began in August 1998. Airport officials said the
expansion was needed to help alleviate an expected increase in traffic in
the coming years and to create a curb for the new terminal.

In 1999, Odebrecht built the columns. In January 2000, Dade Aviation
officials halted work after discovering cracks at the top of two columns.

After scraping away some concrete, engineers determined the top part of 48
columns were missing a horizontal steel bar that wrapped around vertical
steel bars running the column's length. Dade Aviation pinned most of the
blame on Odebrecht, which ended up installing new horizontal steel bars in
42 columns and a carbon fiber wrap on all 48 columns. Odebrecht and the
airport shared the $128,000 cost.

MORE SERIOUS PROBLEM

But in the process of solving that problem, engineers discovered a more
serious one in seven columns: a 250-pound ``embed plate'' -- which connected
the top of the columns with a steel reinforcing bar above -- was too large.
As a result, the load from the departure exit roadway did not fall squarely
on the column, which meant it might crack at some point.

It took months for Dade Aviation to get everyone to agree on a solution: the
embed plates would be redesigned and the top of the columns would be
rebuilt. Odebrecht is just beginning this work, which will cost $165,000.
Who will pay for this has not been resolved.

Odebrecht blames Bechamps for the problem with the seven columns, saying the
embed plate design was faulty.

``It was their design,'' said Gilberto Neves, the project director for
Odebrecht. ``Our role is to build it according to plans and specs.''

Eugene Bechamps Sr. disputes this view, saying that while it was a difficult
design to follow, Odebrecht botched the work.

``They haven't done a good job,'' Bechamps said.

He noted that Odebrecht never raised a question about the embed plate design
before doing the work, a view supported by Massman of Dade Aviation.

``If the contractor couldn't build it the way the design called for, then
the contractor is obliged to ask: `How should I build it?' '' Massman said.

Nonetheless, in February Bechamps accepted responsibility and agreed to the
redesign.

``I wanted to put it behind me,'' Bechamps said.

That's not the end of the problems with the columns, however.

Odebrecht had to replace one column the company damaged during construction,
and Dade Aviation has asked the firm to replace another column that is
slightly crooked.

Odebrecht officials have balked, saying they aren't at fault. They have
served notice that they will ask the airport to pay for this work.

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