Dore & Associates launches legal bid for compensation.
Dore & Associates of Bay City, Michigan is seeking $1.7 million in damages for losses stemming from its work in tearing down Ogg Hall, a campus fixture that had housed generations of students. The state caused expensive delays in its work and then unfairly fired Dore from the job, the company contends.
The state Department of Administration says, however, that it fired Dore & Associates in March 2008 after a series of contract violations and safety problems and that it doesn’t owe the company a dime.
The State Claims Board on Wednesday is expected to consider denying the company damages. If it does, Dore & Associates would likely file a lawsuit seeking them, chief executive officer Arthur Dore said.
The state hired the firm to demolish Ogg’s two towers but the project faced a series of problems.
First, some construction materials caught fire at the top of one of the towers in December 2007 while five of the company’s workers were inside. The workers were not able to get down the stairs, so they climbed down scaffolding set up outside the building to safety.
The final straw came on March 18, 2008, when a large block of concrete fell from one of the towers and crushed a worker’s parked vehicle below. The state terminated Dore’s contract the next day.
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