This blog hasn't been updated since April 29, 2011, because all the news on our new facility is bad. Our contractor, McCarroll Construction ran out of money. The article below just appeared in the Watauga Democrat August 21, 2011.
http://www2.wataugademocrat.com/News/story/New-AppalCART-facility-on-hold---id-005927
Roughly two years after construction began on the new AppalCART facility on the N.C. 105 Bypass, work has stalled due to the contractor's financial difficulties. McCarroll Construction, based in Arden, began approaching AppalCART around March trying to collect more capital so it could continue the project, transportation director Chris Turner said.
Now, AppalCART is considering starting mediation with the contractor next week to figure out how to move forward.
Representatives of McCarroll Construction did not return several messages by presstime Thursday.
The delay has caused AppalCART to go through its budget for legal services, request an extension for its federal stimulus money and push back its ever-changing opening date.
“The timeline’s sort of out the window until we get the mediation done, and then it will still be ‘iffy,’” Turner said. Work began at the property in summer 2009, with the goal of finishing a 23,000-square-foot, LEED-certified center with offices, maintenance bays and ample parking.
The $5.5 million budget was covered by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, although AppalCART contributed its own reserves for early site work and purchasing the property. McCarroll’s bid came in at $4.1 million, but several change orders have upped the final cost estimate to about $5.3 million, Turner said. While the building itself is “probably 90 percent done,” Turner said, the facility lacks several important pieces. Materials are onsite to construct steel parking lot canopies, which will cover the lots where many of the vans and buses will park to offer protection from damaging rain and snow. The canopies will also allow drivers to inspect their vehicles without being exposed to inclement weather. Portions of the parking lot also need to be paved, and elevators need to be tested, Turner said. The interior needs finish flooring, a phone system and a two-way radio system to communicate with buses.A solar water heating system also has not yet been installed on the roof, he said.
The facility has passed several anticipated openings: early 2011, then April 2011, then June and finally mid-July. Now, Turner is hoping to be in the new space before mid-December.
As the project stretched longer than expected, the contractor’s budget for general conditions and overhead simply ran out, he said.
AppalCART and the N.C. Department of Transportation audited McCarroll Construction to ensure its expenses were legitimate and found that the company’s books were in order, Turner said.
They also applied for a grant extension for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money, which Turner expects will be approved.
AppalCART had $1,500 budgeted for legal costs last year and “spent probably three or four times that amount in the last fiscal year,” he said.
The parties are now seeing whether they can come to an agreement or whether the bonding company needs to take the reins. A lawsuit is always a possibility, Turner said, although he anticipated that mediation would be successful.
Until the matter is settled, AppalCART continues to operate its routes from the existing facility at 274 Winklers Creek Road. The routes had already switched to new start times in anticipation of buses leaving from the new facility, but Turner said making those new times work will not be a problem.
Turner said the AppalCART staff is eagerly anticipating the chance to show off the facility’s functionality and beauty and move out of the cramped building where they have been for 27 years.
“It’s something that’s going to be resolved, but it’s going to take some time,” he said.
