A design professional was retained to provide architectural and engineering services for the design of a city-owned sports arena. The general contractor bid the project on a guaranteed-maximum-price basis. The concrete subcontractor filed suit, claiming more than $3.8 million in delays and extra costs, which included an allegation that the final revised drawings added $950,000 worth of work. However, the general contractor would not allow additional time. The subcontractor also alleged that there were design deficiencies, the work had to be completed out of sequence, and the city changed its mind about parts of the project after the subcontractor had already mobilized staff for the work. This forced the subcontractor to accelerate the work, incurring additional labor costs, overhead, and other expenses. Although the design team may have been slow in responding to RFIs, investigation revealed that the general contractor did not pass many of the RFIs to the design team in a timely manner. The claim settled for $950,000, which included a $125,000 contribution from the design team; defense costs were $76,000.

 

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