Expert Witness Blog
A legal battle between Coos County, Oregon and MasTec, Inc., over construction of a natural gas pipeline appears to be coming to an end. MasTec will pay $8.7M, and will dismiss it’s claims against the county for more than $11M for unpaid work and $3.5M for alleged delay damages. Construction expert witnesses opined on numerous problems, including four lawsuits from private landowners against the County and MasTec. Landowners say their private property was damaged during construction of the 60-mile pipeline from Roseburg to Coquille, Oregon. kcby.com also reports:
County Commissioner John Griffith said in a press release on Wednesday, that after MasTec left the county intended to recover what they spent on cleaning up MasTec’s mess. And, he says, they have substantially achieved that goal and without a costly trial.
However, the settlement depends on the impending outcome in the Federal Government’s own case against MasTec in U.S. District Court in Eugene. The County says they have remedied most of the environmental damage caused by MasTec during construction, and they finalized a four-year old agreement in March, with a formal settlement decree with the U.S. Corps of Engineers.