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Expressway Authority gets $75 million for 2004 collapse

Tribune file photo by JAY CONNER (2004)

The settlement comes more than five years after the piers collapsed in April 2004.

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By MIKE SALINERO | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 29, 2009

TAMPA - The Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority will get $75 million in a lawsuit settlement connected with the 2004 collapse of the reversible express lanes on the Selmon Crosstown Expressway.

Insurers for URS Corp., the engineering company that designed the two flawed piers that collapsed in April 2004, agreed to pay $74.8 million to settle the expressway authority's claim following seven months of mediation in Washington, D.C.

With the settlement approved Monday, the authority now has recouped about $82 million in losses from the collapse. Repairs, however, total $92 million.

The authority will receive $750,000 in previously escrowed claims resolved with Figg Engineering, which was removed from the companies that the authority sued after the collapse.

The expressway authority retains the right to seek an additional $5 million in coverage from another insurer of URS.

Efforts to reach URS executives and their attorneys were unsuccessful.

Expressway authority board chairman James Hargrett called the settlement a "good day for the region, especially Hillsborough County."

"At this point in time, with the expressway authority getting resources it can use to put new projects on the drawing board, it means a great deal of benefit for the region," Hargrett said.

Board member Stephen Diaco said he thinks the extra money will help with financing for the planned connector between the Selmon Expressway and Interstate 4.

"It will be giving us the ability to bond more funds and leverage for these projects," Diaco said. "It's an amazing, momentous event for the community and transportation in the community."

The settlement comes more than five years after the piers collapsed in April 2004 and three years after the reversible lanes section from Brandon to Tampa finally opened in 2006.

The 9-mile road cost $492 million to complete. Construction started in 2003 but halted for almost a year after the two piers sunk causing a portion of the elevated turnpike to collapse. Further testing found that 154 of the project's 224 piers needed additional support.

The collapse cost then-expressway executive director Pat McCue his job and generated an uproar in Tallahassee where some legislators demanded that the authority be disbanded. The state had lent the authority $153 million to build the elevated portion.

Just over a year ago, the authority approved a $6.5 million settlement with Westchester Surplus Lines Insurance Co., the authority's insurer during construction of the elevated lanes for costs associated with the collapse.

The authority still has $10 million in losses and is talking with PCL Civil Constructors, the builders, about recovering some of that, said Patrick Maguire, the authority's attorney.

Members of the authority's board will meet July 13 to talk about the best ways to use the money, Maguire said. They'll have the cash in 30 to 60 days.

"To this community, it strengthens us," Maguire said. "It allows us to move forward and bring jobs to the area."

The insurers who settled with the authority are American International Specialty Lines Insurance Co., Columbia Casualty Co., Arch Specialty/URS, Steadfast Insurance Co. and London Insurers.

Reporter Mike Salinero can be reached at (813) 259-8303.

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