In a federal lawsuit, a construction contractor claims DART cheated the company out of millions of dollars in a rail project that was poorly administered and "fraught with errors."
GLF Construction Corporation filed the lawsuit last week in U.S. District Court in Dallas.
The$35 million dollar contract involving the Northeast Corridor Light Rail Line was originally signed in April 1999.
The project involved grading, paving concrete, building retaining walls and other work for 18,600 feet of twin track from the White Rock Station off Northwest Highway to a location north of Interstate 635, the lawsuit said.
"GLF encountered literally hundreds of instances requiring changes to the design, additional information from the designers, rework and disruptions to the work," the lawsuit said. "The consequence was delay of completion of the job totaling 349 days… Yet DART failed and refused to add a single day of time extension."
GLF, a subsidiary of an Italian engineering and construction company, alleged in the lawsuit that DART breached its contract and owed the company:
--$182,138 for "unilateral modifications made by DART."
--$777,101 for "quantities furnished by GLF" on certain bid items.
--$459,505 for "extended and unabsorbed home office overhead" for at least 145 days.
--$833,496 for "extended job site overhead" for those 145 days.
--$3,084,373 for "loss of productivity."
--$3,751,800 for "improperly assessed liquidated damages."
--Profit and interest. No specific amount was specified.
In 2009, Dallas Area Rapid Transit's board of directors determined GLF was entitled to some money but denied GLF's claim for additional compensation, the lawsuit said.
DART spokesman Morgan Lyons declined to comment on the specific allegations in the lawsuit.
"The only comment I would have is this was decided in DART's favor in an administrative hearing several months ago, and they decided to take it to court."
The company's Florida-based attorney, Mike Piscitelli, did not immediately return a call for comment.
