TAMPA - The company in charge of designing the elevated Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway, part of which has sunk, pledge some cash to fix it - or a small part of it, anyway.
URS Corp. agreed to provide $250,000 to fortify one of the piers that recently sank slightly deeper into the ground. It made the offer in a letter delivered to the Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority Thursday.
Thomas Logan, senior vice president and regional manager for the company, said in the letter that URS does not agree that there is proof yet that the work on that particular pier is necessary. And he emphasized that the company is not admitting any liability, or that the pier is unsafe.
The repair in question does not involve the extensive damage resulting when a pier sank about 11 feet in the spring and another that sank more than an inch. The total cost of repairing this and other problems involving piers has been estimated at up to $70-million. Fault and financial liability for that expense remains a disputed matter.
"Given the sensitivity of that and the issue of wanting to maintain public confidence in the project, they're willing to provide the $250,000 provided that it's not an admission of liability," said Suzie Boland, president of RFB Communications Group of Tampa, a public relations firm hired by URS.
In the four-page letter, which was hand-delivered to the Expressway Authority, Logan said the company cannot agree to pay additional repair costs until a full investigation is completed. However, he said the company said it will make good on the contract to make repairs that are its fault.
Logan further expressed the company's desire to stay on the project, albeit in a limited fashion, maintaining that its knowledge of the design remains valuable in getting the project done. That way, the Expressway Authority also will benefit from an additional $1.5-million to $2-million URS has offered to provide to test the other piers.
Expressway Authority Chairman Thomas Gibbs called the offer a good start. He had not received the letter late Thursday, but said he discussed the offer with URS beforehand.
"It sounds positive," Gibbs said. "I'd like an opportunity to read it and get a full understanding. It's a good first step and that's very positive, I think."
PerryDawn Brown, the Expressway Authority spokeswoman, offered a guarded assessment. "All indications are that it's acceptable to us," Brown said. "Of course, there will be much more to come."
Expressway Authority officials have estimated that repair work on the elevated highway could cost nearly $70-million, though they are hoping it will be much less.
The URS offer followed a tense meeting Monday during which Expressway Authority Executive Director Pat McCue blamed the company for design problems with the roadway, and sought permission to hire another firm to finish the work. He said he had been negotiating with company representatives for two months on paying repair costs, with no success.
Some board members seized on that, asking Logan whether the company would at least agree to the $250,000 it will cost to fix Pier 4, which has sunk six-tenths of an inch, so work could begin on fixing it within a few weeks. Logan said he would need 48 hours to give an answer then got a 24-hour extension.
The $350-million Selmon expressway project - a six-mile-long connector between downtown Tampa and Brandon - was generally humming along on schedule until April, when one of the massive columns holding up the roadbed near 50th Street sank 11 feet into the ground. In July, a second column sank 1.3 inches, which is beyond safety standards.
The Expressway Authority hired another engineering firm to assess what happened and to see if the problem is widespread along the stretch. The company concluded that the two sunken piers were not buried in stable ground and not solidly imbedded in rock. Some of the other 224 columns that run the length of the span may have similar problems, the consultants have found, including the pier URS pledged money to fix Thursday.
