Right-of-way problems derail SCTEx schedule

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—Officials of a Japanese consortium building the Pampanga-Tarlac portion of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway have asked the Bases Conversion Development Authority to grant them 457 more days to finish the project due mainly to right-of-way problems.

The request, made by the Hazama-Taisei-Nippon Steel (HTN) Joint Venture on March 29, cited “a critical delay” in its work due mainly due to right-of-way problems, which was also the basis of another Japanese contractor to ask for a 383-day extension on the road’s Bataan-Pampanga stretch.

The KOJM and the HTN made the request on the same day.

‘Critical delay’

In the request, project manager Kunio Kimata told project consultants that “despite our best endeavors, circumstances beyond our responsibility and control have arisen that caused a critical delay to the completion of the work.”

“As such we have no other alternative but to exercise our right under the contract to claim for an extension,” Kimata said.

He referred to the 422 days of delay incurred at the Clark interchange “due to late giving of site possession there.”

HTN explained its basis: “BCDA’s failure to comply with its contractual obligations to give HTN the right of access to and possession of the whole site is a major breach of contract.”

“As a result, HTN has encountered delays to the progress of the work leaving HTN open to the risk of liquidated damages. It is no doubt unreasonable to expect HTN to pay liquidated damages for not completing the work on time due to the late giving of the right of access to and possession of site by BCDA,” it added.

But BCDA president Narciso Abaya said HTN has withdrawn its request and the deadline extension sought by the consortium was now “moot and academic.”

Robert Gervacio, SCTEx project manager for operational support, said HTN’s work was already 80-percent completed as of March.

Joint venture

Except for saying that HTN would apply “single-minded dedication to complete the job,” Abaya did not say how it would catch up with the work.

Abaya said the HTN committed to meet its Aug. 18, 2007 deadline when he met its officials last week.

In a statement, Abaya said HTN general manager Makoto Yoshida, Kimata and Hazama general manager for international division Tetsuro Marui gave this commitment when they paid him a courtesy call on April 13.

Marui flew in from Hazama’s head office in Tokyo, Japan, to give the official advice, he said.

“The assurance of the top executives [of HTN] came as a whiff of fresh wind, coming as it did at a time when the Japanese contractor of Package 1 … had requested an extension of its project completion deadline for another 300 days,” Abaya said.

An HTN official did not return Inquirer’s calls.

The BCDA board of directors wanted the other contractor, the Kajima-Obayashi-JFE Engineering-Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (KOJM) Joint Venture to stick to its Nov. 16, 2007 deadline.

The project consultants—the Pacific Consultants International, Katahira and Engineers International and Nippon Koei Co. Ltd.—advised KOJM, which reported incurring 2,408 days of delay, to take measures to arrest the lag, noting that its 69-percent accomplishment rate as of March 31 was 10 percent behind work schedule. Its work covers the 50-km segment of the 94-km, four-lane toll road .