Taisei Construction Corporation, the construction company building the Cunningham Math and Science replacement center, filed a civil lawsuit for $25,190,349 in June against Delta College and Kitchell Corporation.
Taisei Construction alleges that because the company had no prior knowledge of a specialty HVAC system, a specialist had to be hired.
The claim is that the original plans contained records of only a basic HVAC system, not a system created by a company called Aircuity.
According to Taisei Construction’s complaint, an Aircuity HVAC system requires special training and experience to install.
Taisei, believing that the install was a simple HVAC, hired a subcontractor with only that knowledge, the lawsuit said.
Taisei alleges that Delta and Kitchell withheld critical construction information causing slowdowns and stopping construction to await the architect or engineers’ completion of specs.
Non-buildable designs also caused Taisei to replace and rebuild parts of the project. At times, specs of the project were uncoordinated and conflicting, the lawsuit alleges.
The civil lawsuit filed by Taisei is for compensation of lost money, time, man-power and property.
Taisei filed a similar civil lawsuit in the Superior Court of Santa Clara County against Palo Alto Unified School District.
According to a news blog put out by the Palo Alto school district, “Taisei Construction Company filed a law suit concerning its construction of the New Classroom Building and Media Arts Center on the Palo Alto High School Campus.”
When called about the lawsuit, Palo Alto Unified School District declined to comment.
No further details have been given on the story.
Calls and e-mails went unreturned by Taisei and the company’s attorneys.
The case against Delta and Kitchell is being overseen by Judge Roger Ross at the San Joaquin County Courthouse, and is currently still in preliminary hearings.
A Case Management Conference is set to be heard at 8:30 a.m. on Oct. 31.
The case against Palto Alto Unified School District is being heard at the Superior Court of Santa Clara County and is currently awaiting for a Case Management Conference set for Oct. 15.
The plans for Delta included a four-step process, the first was to construct the new Math and Science building complex.
Phase two is to move all of the professors and courses to the new building.
The third step is to demolish and remove the old Cunningham building.
The fourth and final step is to create a path between Cunningham and the new complex.