CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The grind of heavy machinery is back along Independence Boulevard in east Charlotte but the project, which was supposed to wrap in October, is going to drag into the summer of 2017.
For thousands of people who wrestle with it every day, that's not good news.
“Never. (I) never go there ... never go on Independence,” Chris Stevens, a regular at Liberty East restaurant, said.
The restaurant is on the edge of the construction zone.
Eyewitness News learned that delays in road and highway construction projects are nothing new for the Charlotte region.
Lamar Sylvester, a North Carolina Department of Transportation roadway construction engineer, said about 25 percent of projects statewide finish late and result in penalties for contractors called “liquidated damages.”
“When you have a lot of traffic to contend with, it makes the job a little more complex,” Sylvester said.
In Mecklenburg and surrounding counties, about 43 percent of projects are delayed, which resulted in fines of $2.4 million over the last five years.
Eyewitness News reviewed some of the delayed projects and found fines ranging from $800 to $170,000.
Penalties on the Independence project could be significantly higher.
Devere’s contract with the DOT calls for penalties of $5,000 a day after the original completion date of Oct. 15, 2016.
If the project is finished on July 15, 2017, it could bring liquidated damages of $1.37 million.
DOT spokeswoman Jordan-Ashley Walker said the bonding company that insured the original contract will have to absorb those liquidated damages, but the final figure could be renegotiated.
“The taxpayers will not have to pay any more than the initial contract,” Walker said.
While the final penalty is still up in the air, people who navigate through the construction project every day believe that someone should pay.
Read more top trending stories on wsoctv.com:
Cox Media Group
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/LH3JSJEF3VBLRJLJQESEAG34AM.png)
