County Has Falling Out With Another Contractor

(March 22) The county has terminated its $411,900 contract with Palm Desert-based Falcon Builders over that company’s unwillingness to provide a construction bond relating to the sidewalk and tree replacement project at the Foothill Law & Justice Center in Rancho Cucamonga.
The county has budgeted $522,000  for the project, which is to entail the replacement of the sidewalks around the courthouse and its parking lots that have been uplifted and damaged by tree roots from the mature trees adjacent to the sidewalks that are now more than 25 years old. Only the trees that have been deemed by a certified arborist to not be viable will be removed and replaced. Design costs on the undertaking total $31,307; project management and inspection costs are pegged at $37,603; and the scheduled construction costs are $411,900 with a construction contingency of $41,190.
After the board of supervisors in October authorized the county’s architecture & engineering department to advertise for competitive bids on the project, on November 2, 2012, twenty contractors attended a mandatory pre-bid meeting. On November 20, 2012, five bids were received. On December 18, 2012, the board found the first and second low bidders to be non-responsive and the board awarded a construction contract to Falcon, the third low bidder.
“The contract documents require that Falcon furnish a payment bond and a performance bond within ten calendar days of the contract award,” the director of the architecture and engineering division, Carl Alban said. “Despite multiple requests from architecture & engineering, Falcon has failed and refused to provide the required bonds in a timely manner. Architecture & engineering sent a written request to Falcon on February 21, 2013, requiring delivery of the required bonds by 4 p.m. on February 28, 2013. Falcon failed to provide the requested bonds by the requested date and time. Falcon Builders, Inc. posted a bid bond issued by American Safety Casualty Insurance Company, as surety, which provided that if Falcon failed to provide the required payment bond or performance bond then the surety, or Falcon, would pay the county the damages the county actually suffered by Falcon’s failure to provide bonds, not exceeding the bid bond amount of $41,190. A&E is currently in the process of determining the amount of damages the county will sustain and is considering having the project constructed by the county’s job order contractor. When the amounts of damages are determined, they will be submitted to the surety.”
Last week, the board of supervisors canceled and terminated the Falcon Builders contract.

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