With $140,000 on the line, county must review contract after police station opening delayed

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY — The opening of the Charlie T. Deane Police Station is behind by about three months.

The new station located at 5000 Davis Ford Road adjacent to McCoart Government Center building was due to open November 24, 2017.

Prince William County officials blame a lack of manpower on the part of the general contractor, Flint, Mich.-based Sorensen Gross Construction Services.

From an email from Prince William County spokesman Jason Grant:

Reasons for delays:

“[General Contractor] did not adequately manage/control poor performing subcontractors which contributed to delay. Some of this is attributed to a general lack of manpower and resources in the region due to recents natural disasters and an abundance of work available for contractors to pick and choose from.

Changes made to finished spaces by Police after issuance of the TOP. Delivery and installation of new materials is expected mid to late February. The building cannot be completely secured until that work is complete.”

Sorensen Gross did not return a request for comment for this story. We’re told the firm is relatively new to the Northern Virginia region. The “project showcase” section on the company website notes “coming soon.” 

There are also issue with building security. This work was performed by separate contractors.

From Grant:

“Significant changes made to the Audio Visual systems by police after installation was completed. The final design did not meet the needs and expectation of the building occupants. Additional items were needed and a number of screens/monitors needed to be relocated.”

County’s security contractor (MC Dean) and Mechanical controls contractor (Pritchett) are behind schedule which impacted the GC and impacts the security of the facility. Police cannot occupy until all security measures are in place, including the performance of work by contractors.”

Representatives from MC Dean and Pritchett Controls did not return requests for comment.

A temporary occupancy permit was issued on January 7 to allow some of the police staff to move into the new facility. It will be the new home of the Office of the Chief of Police.

The contract has a liquidated damages provision that awards the county more than $2,000 a day between the anticipated opening until the date the temporary occupancy permit is issued. That amounts to about $140,000.

The county says it will review the delay and decide whether to enforce the damages clause, enforceable between the date the building was supposed to be ready for occupancy on Nov. 24, 2017 and the Jan. 7, 2018 date when the temporary  So far, no decision has been made to do so.

Grant adds:

“This was a highly complex and technically advanced building project with a considerable number of contractors performing the work. Coordination of all parties was very challenging at times. Bad weather at key construction milestone dates and the impacts to the labor force due to an abundance of work had significant impacts also. Once the building security is complete, Police staff will be moving into the new building. Since the majority of the furniture is already in place, the move should take place quickly.”

We’re told the station is nearly complete and should be fully operational in about a month. One of the final requested changes was the addition of bay of lockers to be used by the officers.

The new locker bay will be located outside in the rear of the building, and shouldn’t further delay the rest of the station from opening.

The roof of the building caught fire while under construction in September. The fire is not blamed for the delayed opening.

A new Central District Fire Station 26 opened in October. It is located next to the new police station.

The station is named for Charlie T. Deane who served for 42 years in the Prince William County Police Department. He led the department as one of the nation’s longest-serving police chiefs from 1988 until his retirement in 2012.