3720 - Board of Claims

approximately five months. Actual pole relocation in Section Two and Section One eventually
occurred from on or about March 25, 2002 to July 25, 2002. Complete utility pole relocation, in
addition to progressing in fits and starts not at all close to the coordinated work set forth in the
Construction Sequence and “Utilities” section of the Contract, did not conclude until nearly 300
days later than reasonably anticipated by Intercounty.
This exceedingly long delay in pole relocation, together with the start and stop progress
of same, in turn, clearly delayed and disrupted Intercounty’s work throughout the length of the
Project and was the cause of the Project ultimately being completed 223 days late. Specifically,
the late start and slow progress of the utility pole relocation initially hindered Intercounty’s
progress on the Project by causing it to run out of planned work while it performed less
productive tasks and waited for poles to be moved. This was particularly evident in the Fall of
2001, as Intercounty’s work was then confined to Section Three by the Construction Sequence
and the E & S Plan. This initial problem then became worse in November 2001. Following the
Utilities’ departure from the job site and an oral request by Intercounty to demobilize in late
October 2001 due to the pole relocation delay, which request was flatly rejected,
Mr. Sebastianelli, in early November 2001, notified Intercounty that he would hold weekly
“partnering meetings.” At these “partnering meetings” Mr. Sebastianelli changed the scheduled
work plan in order to insure that Intercounty could keep working around the obstructing poles.
At these meetings, which continued throughout the remainder of the Project, Mr. Sebastianelli
cast aside the Construction Sequence and each week created an ad hoc list of tasks for
Intercounty to perform. These new work lists were called either “Schedule of Operations” or
"Weekly Schedule", and from November 2001 through the end of the Project they replaced the
original Construction Sequence and dictated where and in what order Intercounty had to perform
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