State Agency Files Lawsuit Over Mold at School
By JOANNE L. PAPAIANNI
One of the companies contracted to build the new Midtown Community School in Neptune is being sued by the state in connection with the widespread development of mold in the building.
The lawsuit asks for compensatory damages, pre and post judgement interests, attorney fees, court costs and any and all other relief the court deems appropriate.
The schools exterior walls had to be demolished and replaced due to mold.
The School Development Authority, formerly the Schools Construction Corporation, is seeking compensatory and other damages from Gilbane Building Company, which was terminated from the Midtown Community Elementary School in February 2008.
The SDA maintains that there was a fundamental disagreement with the company regarding the responsibilities and duties of a Project Management Firm (PMF).
Two other firms involved in the project, Turner Construction Company and SSP Architectural Group, are not being sued.
According to a release from Scott Weiner, CEO of the state authority, Gilbanes failures in managing the project caused the schools exterior walls to became infested with mold in late 2006.
The schools exterior walls had to be demolished and replaced, delaying the schools opening by one year.
The school was originally scheduled to open in 2007 but will now open in September.
The Neptune project cost more than $13 million in unforeseen expenses due to mold and the remedial and corrective actions needed.
To date the SDA recovered a total of $6.5 million from Turner and SSP, for their mistakes on the project.
According to a release from SDA, Turner, SSP and Gilbane participated in a mediation facilitated by the SDA to allocate financial responsibility among the three parties. Only Gilbane did not reach settlement with the SDA.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday and delivered to Gilbane Building Company Wednesday at its Lawrenceville office.
The mold situation was discovered in early 2007 and it was announced at that time that construction would be halted while mold was removed and a new facade was installed.
The project which had cost almost $42 million as of last year was expected to increase $5- 10 million due to the mold removal.
In April of 2007 officials from the SCC said the organization would recover all of its costs and damages.
At that time the SCC said it hoped the costs and responsibility could be sorted out through mediation between all of the parties, rather than through costly litigation.
Wednesday, Weiner said, Gilbane did not just make mistakes on this project. As the suit states, its repeated breaches of contract and failure to notify us of ongoing problems represented an arrogant and cavalier approach toward its responsibilities. New Jersey taxpayers should not have to bear the cost of Gilbanes failures on this project. I have every confidence that this lawsuit will be successful. The SDA will aggressively take action whenever it is necessary to protect the public interest.
According to the lawsuit, Gilbane knew or should have known about the existence of mold at least as early as September 12, 2006, when the SSP Architectural Group, the project architect, noted mold in a field observation report.
Also a Nov. 7, 2006 photo taken by Gilbanes own employees revealed visible evidence of mold. However, Gilbane never notified the SDA and allowed construction to continue.
The SDA did not learn of the mold until Turner, the general contractor, notified the SDA on January 17, 2007.
By then, the brick faade had been fully constructed and there was no safe alternative to addressing the mold except to tear down the faade and sheathing.
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