Project setbacks stall progress on $6M shell buildings

Officials question repeated change orders as road project delays push completion into October

KENANSVILLE — Members of the Duplin County Economic Development Commission board received updates on major projects underway in the county during their meeting on Aug. 1. Several development projects are currently in progress on the airport property.

In addition to a new road system at the airport, which includes an already-installed traffic circle, there are plans to build two large shell buildings and several short-term rental units.

Matthew Ferguson from Parish and Partners, an engineering firm based in Columbia, South Carolina, attended the meeting remotely. He was questioned by the board regarding various change orders related to the road construction at the airport, which are necessary to access the sites designated for the new projects.

At the July board meeting, the board approved $212,000 worth of change orders to the original contract with the firm responsible for constructing the roads leading into the Air Park area of the airport. During the meeting, another change order was presented for $7,598 to extend a drainage ditch.

“The ditch is parallel to Airport Road,” Ferguson explained. “The original ditch was approved in the supplemental (change order) at the last meeting (in July). After that, it was noted that the ditch was not long enough in order to daylight the ditch. It was brought to our attention the ditch needs to be longer, approximately 250 or 260 feet longer, to meet DOT requirements.”

These changes to the ditch are expected to extend the completion date of the entire road project by another 16 days, pushing the expected finish to mid-October—92 days past the original contract completion date.

Board members expressed frustration with the additional costs and time extension the change orders have created.

“Why do we continue to get burdened with oversights?” asked Assistant County Manager Carrie Shields. “Seems like there’s a lot of oversights. Why do we continue to take responsibility for the oversights?”

“We’re also sitting here frustrated with the number of change orders,” board chairman Charley Farrior added. “We’re also frustrated that we seem to be held hostage by the contractor.”

The board approved the ditch extension change order but asked Scotty Summerlin, Duplin County Economic Development Commission executive director to arrange an in-person meeting soon to speak with all parties involved in the road project in hopes of preventing any additional costs.

The delays in the road project will also impact the construction of two new 50,000-square-foot shell buildings in the Air Park that aim to attract industrial clients. These buildings are being constructed at a cost of $6 million under a “design-build” contract, meaning there should not be any additional costs associated with them, as the responsibility for any contractor costs lies with the contractor chosen for the project.

Additionally, the road delays will affect the construction of approximately nine short-term rental houses in the Air Park. In an interview with Duplin Journal, Summerlin said that the original concept for these units was to provide accommodations for pilots who needed to stay in the area while their corporate representatives were conducting business. This idea has now been extended to allow representatives of potential industrial or business executives to use the homes while exploring economic opportunities in the county.

In other project updates, the construction of the new shell building in the SouthPark Industrial Park near Wallace is on schedule. Summerlin made note of the rapid growth around the Wallace area.