3720 - Board of Claims

looking to the extra time spent on "original" excavation of the roadway (i.e. original cut and
fill/grading work excluding undercut and stockpile re-handling work) because the utility pole
relocation problems and abandonment of the Construction Sequence adversely affected this work
most directly. We also find it reasonable for Intercounty to compare its bid estimate of 67
workdays for original roadway excavation to the actual workdays spent on original excavation to
ascertain the extra days caused by this disruption from the utility pole relocation delays.
To be specific, PennDOT’s Class 1 Excavation records (Exhibits D-24 and P-77) indicate
that the original excavation work on the roadway actually took 135 calendar days (exclusive of
68 days spent on undercutting work and the 28 days it claims attributable to the re-handling of
stockpiled materials). Intercounty anticipated it would take 67 calendar days to perform the
original excavation scope of work and therefore claims a total of 68 extra days of original
excavation as its lost productivity. 22
We find Intercounty's methodology to determine its lost productivity on this Project
reasonable and appropriate because, inter alia: (1) the disruption to Intercounty's work was both
immediate and pervasive so that an itemized accounting of extra individual costs and/or a
"measured mile" comparison of lost productivity is impractical; (2) once appropriate reductions
in total actual excavation days reflected on PennDOT's records are made to eliminate re-handling
and undercut work, we find the remaining 135 days to be attributable to original excavation (i.e.
the initial cut and fill/grading work impacted most directly by the delayed pole relocation issues);
and (3) we find Intercounty's bid estimate of 67 days for original excavation (absent re-handling
and undercut work) to be reasonable. Therefore we find the difference between the 67 planned
22 It is clear from the testimony that Intercounty’s bid included 67 days for its cut and fill/grading operation. We
utilize the term “original” excavation to describe this work and to distinguish it from the undercutting work and the
material re-handling work also included in Class 1 Excavation on the Project and documented separately in Exhibits
P-77 and D-24.
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