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Although work continues this week on the Harmon tower, design changes and repairs will cause it to miss its planned opening date.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Sun Archives
- Editorial: Easing up on oversight (6-14-2009)
- CityCenter inspectors told: Easy on the paper (6-11-2009)
- Harmon flaws haven’t brought big fallout (5-27-2009)
- Perini redirects blame for errors at Harmon (2-9-2009)
- Adaptation or ‘disaster’?: Depends on your view of the Harmon (2-8-2009)
- County wants proof CityCenter structures are free of defects (2-6-2009)
- Watchers were not watched (1-15-2009)
- How did CityCenter tower flaws persist? (1-8-2009)
- MGM Mirage cancels CityCenter condo project (1-7-2009)
- CityCenter hotel project slowed by corrective work (9-17-2008)
An inspector responsible for monitoring construction at the troubled Harmon hotel in CityCenter last year said he had never read engineering plans without assistance before taking that job, despite earning a civil engineering degree.
The revelation by inspector Joseph Glenn Laurente was contained in documents the county released Tuesday after a hearing addressing the role private inspectors played in mistakes at the Harmon.
Laurente and a second inspector, both employed by Converse Consultants, had issued numerous reports stating they had found no problems at the Harmon. An engineer later discovered major structural flaws.
At the hearing, Converse attorney Greg Gilbert sought to attribute the Harmon errors to bad communication. “There were numerous representatives on site during the entire process of construction, evaluation and implementation,” Gilbert said. “It is safe to say there was a shortfall in communication.”
Hearing officer Charles Thomas said the nature of that communication “shortfall” would be a central point in his decision, which he expects to deliver next week. He will then decide whether to take action against Converse, which could include suspending or revoking the company’s license to provide inspection services in the county.
The hearing covered Converse’s procedures and practices. Left mostly untouched were how and why inspectors issued false reports, and how it was possible that at least one of the inspectors had little experience reading construction plans.
The documents disclosing Laurente’s inexperience were transcripts of a meeting with the county in October. At that meeting, Laurente said that on previous jobs, he had not had to read plans without help from other inspectors, according to minutes recorded by the county and released Tuesday to the Sun.
“He did read the plans on Harmon towers,” which was his first job for Converse, he said.
The serious flaws were discovered in the first 15 floors of the project nearly a year ago. Reinforcing steel at the Harmon, one of the towers at MGM Mirage’s $9 billion CityCenter project, had in some cases been wrongly installed before being encased in concrete, the county said. Some of the steel, known as rebar, was so badly positioned that it stuck out of the concrete floor and was sawed off to conceal the mistake.
The discovery — combined with a lack of condo sales in the weak economy — prompted MGM Mirage to shorten the Harmon by 21 floors, removing 200 planned units. The flaws and subsequent changes will also delay the Harmon’s opening, which had been planned for the end of this year.
Tuesday’s hearing was the latest in the ongoing blame game involving Converse, general contractor Perini Building Co., subcontractor Pacific Coast Steel, owner MGM Mirage and the county’s building department.
Two months ago, Pacific Coast Steel reached a settlement with the Nevada Contractors Board to pay $14,105 in administrative and investigative fees for faulty work at the Harmon.
The Clark County Development Services Department referred Pacific Coast Steel to the Contractors Board after issuing five notices of violation against the ironworker subcontractor over the problems.
The complaint had alleged that Pacific Coast Steel “failed to provide workmanship.”
Under the settlement, Pacific Coast Steel did not admit responsibility or fault.
As required by the county, MGM Mirage had hired Converse Consultants to survey Pacific Coast Steel’s rebar installation at the Harmon to ensure that it complied with the county-approved plans.
The inspectors’ job was to compare plans with construction and note any discrepancies.
But over two months, inspectors Laurente and Scott Edberg issued 62 notices stating the rebar was in compliance.
Edberg left town soon after the discovery. The county met with Converse supervisors and Laurente in October and issued an administrative fine against the inspectors and the company to cover the cost of an investigation.
In the meeting, Laurente said he had inspected floors 17-20 and “made an error signing items that were in noncompliance with the approved construction documents.”
The county stripped Laurente of his certification to inspect concrete work in the county, but he is still approved as a soil inspector and still employed by Converse.
The Sun has not been able to reach Laurente. He was not at Tuesday’s hearing.
A few months after that October meeting, the county referred the case to a hearing officer for further review.
The county has taken no position yet on possible actions against Converse. County attorney Cliff Jeffers spent most of his opening argument Tuesday reading the statement of Bill Taylor, a consultant hired by Converse, who found the company itself was not responsible for the Harmon problems, even if its inspectors had erred.
“Converse Consultants’ inspectors did not identify the noncomforming reinforcing steel work,” Jeffers said, reading Taylor’s statement. “This may have been the result of a variety of different causes, including misinterpretation, incompetence, a mistake or something more nefarious.
“Other things, such as reinforcing steel and concrete placement during different shifts, night work, moving of reinforcing steel to facilitate concrete vibration, or accidental or intentional concealment of the problem by others may also have been contributing factors.”
In finding that the company had done nothing wrong, Taylor recommended that Converse provide more training for Laurente and Edberg, who has left the company.
Taylor also noted that blame could fall on the contractor for failure to notify the inspectors that they were making mistakes.
“By these individuals most knowledgeable of this issue not communicating this problem with the inspector, the engineer, the owner or the construction manager, the ability of all concerned to mitigate these issues early on was dismissed, and the chain of problem discovery, supervision and problem resolution was broken,” Taylor wrote.
At the hearing, Jeffers offered minimal comment on the report, tentatively questioning the assumption that third-party inspectors should take their cues from the contractors they are inspecting.
“The question is whether there is more to the role of special inspector,” Jeffers said.
Gilbert, Converse’s attorney, listed the steps Converse was taking to improve. The company made several changes in procedure, such as adopting a 90-day probation period for new hires and rotating inspectors on sites.
“We’ve learned our program has some weaknesses and we’ve taken corrective action,” Gilbert said.
Thomas, the hearing officer, indicated he would look closely at whether Converse had followed its own procedures, and would look at the company’s chain of command to see who was responsible for Edberg and Laurente’s work on the site.
Thomas also asked Converse to provide evidence that the inspectors were actually on the site looking at rebar installation.
In his audit, Taylor found that Laurente said he was unaware the reinforcing steel placement did not comply with approved plans, and did not observe the steel being cut with a torch.
Why do this story?
This is unfair to this one inspector, to name him personally and frame him as someone of such important magnitude to problems at the Harmon Tower construction at Cityplace.
This story reads so "Vegas", and so "Corporate", as corporations shed liability and mistakes like the plague by contracting with partners, consultants, etc all, so some poor Family Guy smuck at the bottom of the food chain can be distorted as the "story", or problem.
This is a 9 billion dollar property built by a Fortune 500 Company with two CEOS making big money, contracted with a construction company, Perini, capable of big jobs anywhere in the country, on a project with huge interim construction expense needing expedited completion.
Failing short of objectives on safety is everyone's responsibility.
Inspectors aren't there to save your ass--it is the contractors sole responsibility to build the structure according to the blueprints. That's all there is to it. Would it have been nice if every inspector a city hires has 10 years of experience in all facets of construction? Yes...but that might have only caught some mistakes anyway--the inspectors don't see everything.
I agree with matteo2003i
It is up to the CONTRACTOR to build the structure correctly in the first place without any shortcuts. Don't blame the building inspector. If it was done right in the first place, this gentleman wouldn't have to be sitting there explaining anything.
Read the contracts. Decide accordingly. The prime construction contractor has a duty to build the structure according to plans. If this was not done, then he has to bear the cost of the remediation.Not the inspector.However, the prime construction contractor may also be liable to MGM Mirage for the foreseeable damages arising from its services. In this case these damages(consequential) may be difficult to assess,but it's worth the effort to assess them.
At this point no one is really coming down hard on the contractors who are liable for these defects. Everyone seems to be getting a free pass. That's not the way these defect matters should be resolved in my opinion. There are real issues, and damages here, and the parties responsible should be held to the fire for their failures.
Safety and the responsibility of building the building correctly are the responsibilties of the Owner/Developer and the Contractor. The building inspectors are not "free" quality control.
Just a question to all the people who are blaming Perini here: You do realize that every G.C. or Construction Manager who builds projects of this magnitude has to get every major concrete pour blessed by a 3rd Party Inspector AND Clark County Building Department before they move forward on a project?
Let me say that again: Every major concrete pour on a project as big as CityCenter has to be blessed before they pour concrete by a 3rd Party Inspector AND Clark County Building Department.
While I'm sure he's not having a good day, I give credit to Mr. Laurente for standing up like a man and dealing with this. Please note that Mr. Edberg is nowhere to be found and that might be a story all in itself as to why he fled town.
Perini is going to get slammed left and right for the Harmon tower. But why isn't Clark County Building Department being slammed as well? I know without a doubt that CCBD had to bless every bit of that faulty rebar that was installed before Perini poured concrete.
Is Perini ulimately at fault? Yes. But I do know this: If I were the Project Engineer, the Assistant Project Manager, or the Project Manager for those concrete pours I would have asked this before every pour: Did we and/or our subs install the rebar per plan? Yes. Did we get blessings from 3rd Party Inspectors and Clark County Building Department? Yes. Then I would have given the green light to pour it.
Just because Perini is a large G.C. doesn't mean they're responsible for every little detail here. If Perini dotted the "i" and crossed the "t" and got blessings from 3rd Party Inspectors and Clark County Building Department Inspectors, then what else was Perini supposed to do? (I hope Perini has their paperwork in order...)
Clark County Building Department runs you through Heaven and Hell just to add a small wooden deck on a modular building. How CCBD Inspectors missed FIFTEEN FLOORS of misplaced rebar on the biggest project in the history of this town and NO ONE is mentioning this ticks me off. Yes, Perini is going to get slammed, but Clark County Building Department is the one getting a free pass here and it sickens me.
In the end, Perini has the deepest pockets so the lawyers that are being assembled by MGM will go after the deepest pocket.
In the end, maybe Owners and Contractors will both learn that buildings of this size can't be built overnight and that the project schedule needs to be lenghthened so that you have the time to measure twice and cut once. The Harmon Tower fiasco is due to outrageous time demands and people rubber-stamping things just to keep moving forward.
One last thing: I haven't set one foot on CityCenter. I've just been on enough projects to know that my "guesses" as to what happened are probably right. Go ahead and flame away and say "you're not even down there" if you want, but it doesn't take much to figure out what happened down there.
Maybe the inspector was too busy making sure residential water heater installations were to code.
The CCBD is a joke.
This a general complaint with a specific problem. Nobody cares anymore. As long as their A$$ is covered nobody cares.
Alexandra: Start asking questions about the "shop drawings" for the reinforcing steel. The structural engineering plans often contain ambiguities. This is why the supplier of the steel reinforcing rods must submit "shop drawings" for every piece of steel. This is a painstaking process. The final "shop drawings" are approved by the structural engineer. These "shop drawings" then become the Bible for the reinforcing steel placement.
The second line of questioning centers on the engineer who discovered the problem with the rebar. How did he or she discover a problem buried in concrete? How did he or she know where to have the contractor jackhammer away the concrete to expose the incorrect steel?
The answer is probably a set of "shop drawings".
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From the Amish Country
This gaffe is going to be really expensive. The Owner lost the most lucrative portions of the Harmon Tower, the upper floors.
When a skyscraper is designed, most of the space on the lower floors is used to support the function of the upper floors. Parking, entry, lobby, elevator shafts, pipe and mechanical chases, emergency stairways and exits, administrative and maintenance area, etc. eat up the space on the lower floors.
The overhead cost of these parts of the building is overcome by the revenue produced by the upper floors. When a number of upper floors at the Harmon were sliced away, a major portion of the revenue got sliced away also.
The challenge for this project is to find sufficient revenue to support the fixed overhead costs already built into the lower floors.
Someone is going to have to pay bigtime for the lost profit from the upper floors.
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From the Amish Country
everyone whose signatures,including the entities they represent, appear in the pouring permit should be held responsible for this mess. but the main contractor and the erring subcontractor
are the main culprits. its their job to do it right. if the mistakes were not detected total collapse of the structure will be the worst scenario in the future. what then?
Lousy Union subcontractor, stupid ironworkers. Who could care less. Did you know that ironworkers are considered "semi-skilled"? At best. You put lazy dopes in charge, and expect inspectors to catch all their mistakes? It's like raising a child-you can't stop all their transgressions, so you just do the best you can. Luckily, the ironworkers will soon be out of town and out of work. Good....