Pima County terminated a road-repair contract with Select Development and Construction after months of delays and complaints from subcontractors that they weren’t paid on time.
The letter of termination was delivered to Select on Wednesday. It ended the company’s contract to widen Magee Road from two lanes to four between North La Cañada Drive and North Oracle Road.
“The main reason for the termination of the contract is for a lack of progress,” said Ana Olivares, Pima County’s deputy director for infrastructure. “The project was just not progressing like we were expecting or it should be.”
The project, which started in October 2013, was slated to be done in January 2015, but Select indicated the project wouldn’t be finished until July 2015.
Select’s last progress report to the county showed that while 80 percent of the time allotted for the project was expended, the company had completed only 20 percent of the work. Olivares said Select received $1.8 million of the $10 million contract for the work it had done so far.
Select did not return a request for comment.
Olivares said it was the first time she’d seen a contract terminated in her more than 20-year career in transportation.
The county met weekly with Select officials to discuss their progress and knew last summer that the company had fallen behind schedule, according to county documents.
“What we did was continue to remind them that their time was being charged,” Olivares said. “Yet there seemed to be no progress being made.”
The county warned Select in a Nov. 3 letter that failure to complete the road work on schedule and continued delays in paying subcontractors and suppliers would result in termination.
Now the county has two options to finish the road widening.
One option is to wait for Select’s bonding company to find a new contractor to complete the project. A bonding company guarantees the work will be completed, even if it’s by another organization. Another option is that the county advertises the project and finds a contractor on its own.
Olivares said the county is already preparing to advertise for the contract. Regardless of who hires the new contractor, the Magee Road improvements won’t be done in January.
“It’s going to be longer than expected, of course,” Olivares said.
In the meantime, the county will maintain traffic control of the road and keep private and commercial driveways open.
The termination of the Magee Road contract does not impact two other contracts with the county for repair projects on La Cañada Drive and another near Homer Davis Elementary School.
