According to The Washington Post, the companies building Maryland’s Purple Line said May 1 that they plan to walk away from the $2 billion project mid-construction because the state has refused to pay for extensive delays and cost overruns.
The consortium of firms, known as Purple Line Transit Constructors (PLTC), said work crews will vacate the project’s construction sites spanning a 16-mile swath of the Washington suburbs after an “orderly transition” of 60 to 90 days.
PLTC is led by three construction giants: Fluor, Irving, Texas; Lane Construction Corp., Cheshire, Connecticut; and Traylor Bros., Evansville, Indiana. It is the construction arm of Purple Line Transit Partners—led by Fluor, Meridiam, Paris, and Star America, Roslyn Heights, New York—that signed the 36-year public-private partnership with the state.
Unless Maryland officials reach an agreement with the construction team, its departure would leave the umbrella group of companies managing the light-rail project scrambling to find new firms to complete it. Such a change would inject deep uncertainty into the state’s largest transportation project, which is already more than a year behind schedule.
In a letter to the consortium Friday, Scott Risley, the construction team’s project manager, said it was terminating the design-build contract because of “extended” delays beyond its control. Delays caused by a lawsuit, problems obtaining land, last-minute changes in design requirements and difficulties in receiving state environmental approvals had added two and a half years and $519 million to the project, Risley wrote.
State officials have countered that the contractor was slow to complete designs, could do more to accelerate work and has blamed too many delays and costs on the lawsuit. They also have accused the contractor of trying to position itself to make more money via cost overruns.
Most recently, PLTP told the state it would need an additional five months and $187.8 million because CSX Transportation had changed the design requirements for a “crash wall” near its tracks in Silver Spring.
PLTP also recently told the state it might need to file a “force majeure” claim because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Such claims typically argue that a contract can’t be followed because of an “act of God.” Some Purple Line crews had to self-quarantine in early April after a utility inspector on the project tested positive for the virus.
The construction team said it is exercising a clause in its design-build contract with the umbrella group that allows either party to terminate it if delays exceed 365 days. Purple Line delays have mounted to at least 976 days, according to the termination notice.
Maryland transit officials have said the Purple Line’s 21 stations in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties will open in two phases, in late 2022 and mid-2023. The line was initially scheduled to open in March 2022.
The Purple Line is designed to connect communities with Maryland’s spokes of the Metro system and improve transit service, particularly for low-income residents. Prince George’s and Montgomery officials have invested hundreds of millions in the project, hoping stations will revitalize and focus growth in older, auto-centric suburbs.
As of the end of 2019, the state had spent $1 billion on the Purple Line’s engineering, property acquisition and construction, according to a state budget document.