The Illinois Tollway will pay nearly $31.5 million to New York-based Judlau Contracting and its commercial contractors to settle a lawsuit filed after the tollway in April terminated a $324 million contract of dollars with Judlau to rebuild the southbound lanes of Interstate 290 and Interstate. 88 interchange near Oak Brook, Ill.
The deal allows the highway to move forward on the project with Illinois-based Walsh Construction, which had been the next lowest bidder, as previously reported by ENR.
“The two parties agreed to settle the case for $24,985,437, which covers substantial construction costs of approximately $15 million already incurred by Judlau. In addition, the Illinois Turnpike will pay Judlau’s subcontractors approximately $6.5 million for the work they have performed,” said a statement from the highway.
“Judlau is pleased with the settlement and notes that the highway did not terminate the contract as a result of any performance issues on Judlau’s part,” said Randall Samborn, Judlau spokesman.
The turnpike claims the contract “was canceled because a relatively new provision of state law that provides a bid preference for Illinois-based companies was inadvertently excluded from the evaluation of the offer of the original contract”.
“Had the bid preference been applied, the contract would have been awarded to Walsh Construction Company. The settlement will remove legal barriers and allow the highway to proceed with the project. It also resolves costly litigation and that consume time,” says the highway.
Walsh Construction did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
