Lee County and Port Authority Commissioner Brian Hamman finally had a public forum to get some answers on why a construction project went more than $346 million over budget and will be more than four years behind schedule to complete.
Hamman and the public he represents should wait to get the answers because of the potential for a lawsuit, Lee County Attorney Richard Wesch said.
The Board of Port Commissioners met Jan. 16, and as they filed into the conference room just across the street from Southwest Florida International Airport’s runway, the agenda had been changed from one day prior.
Commissioner Kevin Ruane deferred three agenda items, including the approval of the $346 million cost increase to the total project budget from the original $307 million. Approvals for contracts for Atkins Realis and EG Solutions Inc., to be extended also were postponed. EG Solutions had a $12.5 million contract extension removed from the agenda.
“The agenda was published on [Jan. 13],” Ruane said. “It had a change of astronomical proportions, and I got my briefing [Jan. 15]. I didn’t feel there was enough information to truly understand the scope.
“I need a lot more information before I’m going to continue to potentially look at another investment and not have some clarity. With no clarity, it was in our best interest to defer this.”
But during the meeting, Hamman didn’t want to wait to ask questions.
“I clearly am not thrilled with where we’re at,” Hamman said of a project that was scheduled to be completed this month for $307 million but instead would not be completed until March 31, 2029, for more than $653 million.
Property taxes are not used on port authority projects, but passenger fees of $4.50 per airline ticket do go toward the airport expansion projects.
“Do you all want to have a conversation about where we stand on this project, so that at least you can kind of get an idea of where everybody’s head is at?” Hamman said. “I can tell you where my head’s at. I would love if there’s somebody here from Manhattan [Construction] or Atkins or both.
“Is anybody from Manhattan here?”
Craig Bryant, vice president of Manhattan’s Southwest Florida operations, stood, approached the podium and introduced himself.
Hamman thanked him for attending and then asked him: “So why is it not completed? The project has undergone a redesign for over 16 months at this point, since September of 2023, so can you just give me an idea from your perspective, like, how did we get to where we’re at today?”
Before Bryant could answer, Lee County Wesch interjected.
“I hate to do this,” Wesch said. “And with all due respect, might I suggest that we postpone this discussion, Commissioner, only out of a sense of my understanding that the reason for the deferral is to have the board get additional information from staff.
“I hate to use the ‘litigation’ word, but there is a concern, if the competing interests between the Port Authority, Manhattan Construction and Atkins engineering cannot be resolved adequately, we may end up in litigation, and the proverbial ‘what you say might be used against you’ might very well come into play.”
The commissioners voted to extend Manhattan’s contract through the end of February and agreed to reconvene in a special meeting prior to then. That time, date and place have yet to be decided.
Hamman expressed his frustrations with the lack of progress after the meeting. Phase one of the terminal expansion would have consolidated security check points into one location at a grand entrance inside the airport instead of four separate locations before each gate. The expansion also would upgrade the interior restaurants and concessions after getting through airport security.
Annual passenger counts at RSW have eclipsed 11 million per year.
“We need this expansion,” Hamman said. “It was supposed to be done this month. And it’s not done. So, I wanted to ask the builder, why is it not done? And I wanted to uncover some answers.
“Basically, it sounds like it was a monumental screwup with the engineering firm with the structural design. The structural design was not correct. Because of that redesign now, we’ve been sitting pretty much dead in the water for a couple of years now. My goal was to try and hear from the people who are going to build it and hopefully get the confidence from them that they will build it and deliver it on the new schedule. Unfortunately, it sounds like we don’t have all the answers yet.”