OCEAN CITY – After over a year of construction, the Caroline Street Comfort Station on the Boardwalk is now open.
“The building is open and substantially completed,” McGean said on Tuesday without wanting to further comment.
A few weeks ago, McGean advised the contractor, Black Diamond Builders, if the Caroline Street Comfort Station did not meet certain completion goals by Friday, Dec. 20, he will formally request the contractor’s bond company take over and complete the project. It did not come to that, McGean confirmed.
McGean explained last month when the town bids and contracts a project over $100,000 the contractor is required to supply a performance bond and payment bond, which both act as a form of insurance. A payment bond guarantees the subcontractors are paid and the performance bond guarantees the project gets built. If a project’s performance bond is called, the contractor is taken off the project, and the bond company brings in its own construction crew to finish the project.
The town is under a $938,000 contract with Black Diamond Builders for the project. The project is being funded by a bond issued in 2012 along with funding to reconstruct the Boardwalk, which was completed last spring.
The old underground restrooms at Caroline Street and the Boardwalk were demolished last December and the construction of the new, state-of-the-art facility complete with a performing arts stage began shortly thereafter with a projected finish date in May before the arrival of the summer season. However, a wet spring and some poor decisions slowed the construction process, and it became apparent the new facility would not be completed for the start of the summer season.
Consequently, after it was realized the project would not be ready at all for summer, the city contracted with a private waste disposal company to provide temporary restrooms for Boardwalk visitors on a site immediately adjacent to the construction site.
At the end of August, the contractor entered into its penalty phase for missing the deadline.
McGean furthered if a project is not completed within the timeframe stated in the contract liquidated damages is assessed at $1,000 a day until the project is delayed.
“The purpose of that charge is to cover our expenses to the town that have occurred as a result of the delay in the project, such as the port-a-potty rentals, the additional time to pay the architect, potential lost revenue, for example we lost the use of the stage and were not able to put on any acts during the summer,” McGean said at that time. “It is meant to keep the town whole, and they [Black Diamond] are in excess of about $100,000 right now.”