The Boulevard of Broken Dreams

FDOT (Florida Department of Transportation) admits it has completely lost control over whether or not the work is on schedule on Roosevelt Boulevard.

For months representatives of FDOT have reassured Key Westers that the work on the Boulevard is progressing “on schedule”.

In the meantime many businesses on the Boulevard are free-falling.

“My retail business has been dramatically affected,” says John Key, President of Napa Auto Parts, “I almost went under last August. You see five or six people working on site.  They keep telling us everything is on schedule, but I have real doubts about them really being on schedule.”

We thought it might be a good idea to check into that.  We made no less than four requests to see the actual scheduling reports.  The FDOT contract requires a monthly report indicating whether or not the work is on schedule.  The contractor must also create a very smart, color-coded flowchart, which is quite puzzling at first glance, but in fact, is very smart indeed.  That is, if the contractor actually submits the paperwork.

On February 21, 2013, after 46 days of waiting for a response to our public record’s request, FDOT did send us two old scheduling charts dated August and November 2012, but noted that the November scheduling update had been “rejected”.

So, what happened to the other eight mandatory monthly reports?  Jackie Hart, the construction inspector for the project, wrote to the contractor,

“In looking at the schedule update, there are items where the early start is AFTER the Late start and after the late finish.  Also, the one thing that we thought was going to be updated from the last schedule was the sheet piling.  The schedule shows that the sheet piles are complete in Nov 2012 and Dec 2012 and shows a late start in September 2012.”

(Note:  On January 23, 2013 FDOT presented its quarterly update to the Key West City Commission stating that the work on the sheet piles had only just begun that day.)

Finally, early this week we were forwarded a message from the FDOT Project Manager, Charlie Phinizy stating that FDOT has “give[n] the contractor a long leash on schedules,”  and is [now] requesting “accurate and approvable [scheduling] updates” and is promising to put “more pressure on the contractor on this and other issues.”

In other words, FDOT apparently has no clue as to where we actually are with the construction schedule.

“I predict that this contract will go to January 2015,” says disheartened Rod Rodriguez, who owns Banner Tire on North Roosevelt Boulevard, “I have seen it before.  FDOT doesn’t care.  In 1968 I was a partner in a Banner Tire dealership in Miami.  It took them five years to finish a two-year job redoing the avenue.  It killed the business.  We gave the garage back to the bank.”

“After forty-one years, I might have to close my business,” says Rod.  He also says his neighbor, who had a liquor store on the Boulevard for 50 years, had to close his store recently.  “My business is down 40%. Who will buy my business now?” says Rod, who had dreamed of retiring.

Apparently Key Westers have one thing going for them: the “Incentive / Disincentive” clause in the contract.   (If the contractor finishes the job past the agreed uon finish date he loses $10,000 per day.)   The problem is the disincentive fee is capped at $1.2 Million.  Considering that (as we previously reported) the contractor managed to jack up the price from the $26 Million that FDOT found reasonable in its official estimate, to $41.5  Million, one could say the contractor is working with $15 Million in excess profit.  That could make the $1.2 Million disincentive fee look like petty cash.

The bids (all over $40 Million) remain quite a mystery.   When reviewing the line items on the bid proposals, the differences are sometimes astounding:  For example, the cost for lighting conduit ranges from $100,982 to $488,752 yet, miraculously, those two bidders were only $12,982 dollars apart in their total bid amounts and some $15 Million above FDOT’s official estimate.  (Note:  Only three bids were submitted.)