The Trust for Governors Island is suing Turner Construction and its subcontractor for more than $5 million, alleging the construction firms made several critical errors when designing the island’s seawall and lift bridges.
In a lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court last week, the trust accuses a Turner subcontractor Ocean Coastal Consultants Engineering of “professional malpractice.” The trust says the company made design errors on several bridges that connect its ferries to docks at the Battery Maritime Building on the island. It also made mistakes on a plan to rehabilitate the island’s seawall, which acts as a barrier against floods and storm surges, the suit claims.
In the suit, the trust claims it was forced to fix hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of work because of faulty bridges, including incorrect ferry measurements that resulted in gaps between the ferry and the bridge. It also claims that “no marine contractor would be able to rehabilitate the seawall as specified by OCC,” and that it cost the trust thousands of dollars to implement the different design.
The trust wants at least $2.4 million from each company, as well as a reimbursement of legal fees, according to DNAinfo.
Mayor Bill de Blasio is reportedly planning some type of mixed-use structure on the 172-acre Governor’s island, which has 900,000 square feet primed for development. Former Related Companies executive Michael Samuelian was selected to lead the trust in September.
Turner, along with Lendlease, last month was tapped to lead the 1.2 million-square-foot expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Center. [DNAinfo] — Miriam Hall