Dive Brief:

• A Vermont contractor has agreed to pay $637,500 to settle accusations that it defectively built four bridges about a decade ago, the Department of Justice said in a release on Nov. 29.
• According to the release, employees of J.A. McDonald (JAM) intentionally cut or burned sections of steel that make up part of the bridge supports, and then took steps to conceal these damages from the state transportation agency, which ordered the projects.
• As a result, federal and state authorities allege that the state transportation agency VTrans unwittingly paid JAM for deficient bridgework and subsequently presented false claims to the Federal Highway Administration to be reimbursed for the federal share of the sum it paid JAM.

Dive Insight:

Federal authorities say VTrans hired Lyndon Center-based JAM between 2008 and 2010 to do federally funded work on two bridges in Bennington and two bridges in Guilford, both in southern Vermont. JAM was paid $29 million for the jobs. Authorities began investigating the incident after a whistleblower complaint in 2018, according to VTDigger.

According to the U.S. Attorney General's office, "JAM employees materially altered certain components of the bridges at issue by cutting or burning multiple sections of reinforcing steel out of the reinforced-concrete substructures that support the bridges, and that JAM employees took affirmative steps to conceal such material alterations from the Vermont Agency of Transportation."

VTrans found...

Read Full Story: https://www.constructiondive.com/news/vermont-contractor-j-a-mcdonald-pay-600...