Deadline bust (again)

Bonita Springs Mayor Jay Arend just laughs when he hears Astaldi Construction is going to miss yet another deadline for the completion of widening U.S. 41.

Maybe it’s to keep from crying.

Arend says he even has a joke ready for a speech he’s making to the Bonita Chamber of Commerce on June 16, a few days after the project was to have been finished.

“I’ve got good news and bad news,” he said. “The good news is Astaldi says they’ll be done by the 15th. The bad news is yesterday was the 15th.”

Actually, Astaldi had told the state it would finish by June 13. According to state officials, though, — Astaldi could not be reached for comment — the company will not be done by that date as it promised in April.

Astaldi officials could not be reached for comment. The job was originally supposed to finish by the end of 2005.

Florida Department of Transportation spokeswoman Debbie Tower said the company claims it will have all six lanes open in mid-June. Other work will remain to be done, however, so the project won’t be finished.

Photo by MICHEL FORTIER, Daily News // Buy this photo

Traffic crawls past work on the Imperial River Bridge on Tuesday in Bonita Springs, part of the widening of U.S. 41 to six lanes by Astaldi, a construction company based in Italy. The company is not expected to make its June 13 deadline for the road’s expansion.

Astaldi is being assessed $6,078 per day in liquidated damages by the state. Late last year, however, the state agreed to pay extra as an incentive for the company to get the project back on schedule. The state paid more than $1 million in bonuses, driving the price of the project to nearly $20 million.

Not only will Astaldi fail to meet its latest deadline, it started paying damages more than three weeks later than expected. That’s because the state granted the company extra weather days for time workers couldn’t work during early 2006, and more days because the road work had to wait on a drainage subcontractor. Instead of paying the $6,078 beginning April 17, the damages didn’t start accruing until May 9.

So far, the company has accumulated $127,638 in damages.

Tower said the liquidated damage amount is calculated based on a state formula. It’s designed to pay for construction oversight and inspection, plus to penalize the contractor on behalf of motorists who must continue to deal with construction.

Tom Rypl, manager of Big Al’s, a sports bar and restaurant on U.S. 41, said based on what he’s seen, he has no confidence the project will be done anytime this summer.

“I think it may be early fall,” he said.

He said at least navigating the orange barricades isn’t as much of a headache now as it was during the busy winter tourist season.

“I live right down the road and I have to leave half an hour early in season,” he said.

Despite its troubled record on the U.S. 41 job, Collier County commissioners voted unanimously in March to hire Astaldi to widen Immokalee Road between I-75 and Collier Boulevard. Arend said he had hoped to warn Collier commissioners about the company, but the deal was done before he could.

“The first thing I’d ask Collier is when they want to start,” he said. “I’d think they’d have to finish here first.”

Astaldi also remains a qualified bidder for state work, though that could change in July. The qualified bidder list is reviewed at the end of the fiscal year. The new year begins July 1.

Arend said Astaldi won’t be doing any Bonita work while he’s around.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “They might have the lowest bid, We don’t have to take it.”

Tower said the state has asked Astaldi for a new schedule. So far, the company hasn’t submitted one.