Lessons from the Investigation of Problems in Airport Way Sanitary Sewer in Portland, Oregon

City of Portland-Bureau of Environmental Services (BES) contracted with BC Construction Company (BC) to construct the NE Airport Way II-NE 138th Avenue to NE 181st Avenue Water and Sanitary System. The contractor did not complete works to the satisfaction of the city. The city was subsequently forced to incur additional expenses to bring the line to acceptable condition before putting into service. The city wanted to recover the added cost from the Contractor, and engaged the author as an expert to review the contract documents, reports and records to find out whether it had the foundations and technical basis for its case and legal action against the contractor. The author completed the investigation and this paper presents a summary of the lessons learned from this investigation.