Automatic Assessment of Liquidated Damages to Begin

As a result of criticism by a Legislative audit, and by a separate formal FHWA review of PennDOT’s past practices in assessing liquidated damages, the Department intends to begin automatically assessing liquidated damages on any project on which work extends beyond the currently approved Required Completion Date and/or specified Milestone Date(s). Current projects are included.
           
Automatic assessment of liquidated damages will be performed as part of processing contract pay estimates in ECMS. The calculated value of liquidated damages will be deducted from the amount due the contractor on each current estimate. 
           
To facilitate the processing of time extension requests, the Department has revised the following sections of Publication 408:
                        SECTION 108.03(b)   Construction Project Scheduling
                        SECTION 108.06       Time Extensions and Reductions
                        SECTION 689.3(a)     Narrative Schedule
                        SECTION 689.3(b)3. Network Schedule
                        SECTION 689.3(c)3. CPM Schedule
           
Pertinent revisions to the Pub. 408 sections listed above may be viewed by going here.
           
The revised specifications require that the Contractor submit time extension requests electronically via ECMS, require that requests be submitted within 30 days of the termination of a “qualifying event”, provide a list of qualifying events, and require that the effect of a “qualifying event” on the Required Completion Date be shown on a supporting schedule, using the accepted schedule in place at the time of the event. Time extension requests not submitted or re-submitted within the specified times, or which do not include all of the required supporting information, including a supporting schedule, will not be approved.
           
The revised specifications also address time reductions, Department approval time, and dispute resolution. It is important to note that the specification states that before any reduction of contract time is processed, the Department will assess whether a reduction is warranted in consultation with the Contractor.
           
The Department has informed APC that, beginning this week, it will request Contractors to agree to incorporate the revised time extension specifications into their existing contracts by Work Order, and the Department will establish a 60 day grace period for resolution of currently required contract time extensions. The Department has stated that Contractor’s who do not agree to incorporation of the revised time extensions specifications into their  existing contracts will be informed that the Department will strictly enforce the existing time extension specifications, which it believes are more onerous than the revised specifications..

Any questions on this matter should be directed to Leonard Bellanca at 717-238-2513 ext 104 (email lbellanca@paconstructors.org) or Jason Wagner at 717-238-2513 ext 111 (jwagner@paconstructors.org).

07.30.09