Firm that built Bangor courthouse sues roofing subcontractor

Sept. 27--BANGOR, Maine -- The firm that oversaw the construction of the Penobscot Judicial Center has sued the roofing subcontractor, claiming its substandard work cost them more than $500,000 to fix.

Consigli Construction Co. sued Roof System of Maine Inc. of Bangor earlier this month in U.S. District Court.

Consigli, based in Milford, Massachusetts, also has sued Acadia Insurance Co. of Westbrook and Old Republic General Insurance Corp. of Chicago, claiming the firms improperly denied claims over roof damage at the Bangor courthouse.

Answers to the complaint have not been filed.

Phil Buckley, the Bangor attorney representing Roof Systems of Maine, declined Friday to comment on the lawsuit.

Consigli also is the general contractor overseeing construction of the Capital Judicial Center in Augusta. The roof subcontractor for that project is Hahnel Brothers Co. of Lewiston, according Philip Johnson, project manager for the state court system.

The $34.4 millionPenobscot Judicial Center was built on Exchange Street in downtown Bangor between September 2007 and October 2009. It opened Nov. 23, 2009. Roofing Systems worked on the project between November 2008 and June 2009, according to the complaint.

By July 2011, less than two years later, it was evident the membrane was delaminating from the rest of the roof layers in certain sections, and water was inside the roof system, according to the complaint. By April 2012, rubbers tires and 5-gallon buckets of sand were placed on sections of the membrane that were peeling or bubbling away from the roof to prevent further damage.

Filed with the complaint was a report on the roof damage, dated Dec. 6, 2011, prepared by the engineering firm of Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc. of Waltham, Massachusetts. The firm was hired by Consigli to research the cause of the problem and to recommended how to fix it.

The report concluded the damage and the weather conditions when the roof was installed "strongly suggests that the roof membrane delamination was caused by the use of wet or frozen roofing materials at the time of construction" and inadequate protection of the roof assembly area from the wind and weather.

Consigli was contractually obligated to repair the damage, the complaint said. Roof repair work was performed by Consigli and the Bangor roofing firm between June and September 2012, but water damage was discovered the following month, according to the complaint. More repairs were required.

As of May 2014, Consigli spent $541,777 in connection with the roofing problem and Roof Systems of Maine spent more than $500,000 on repairs, the complaint said.

"As a construction manager, Consigli's primary concern is always to provide a first quality project," David Thomas, project executive for the company, said Saturday in an email. "As a result, when roof system problems arose at the new Penobscot Judicial Center, our first priority was to get the required repairs done in order to provide the owner -- the State of Maine Judicial Branch -- with a project which met the high standards of quality to which they were entitled.

"We therefore arranged for all appropriate repairs to be performed without obtaining any assurances as to who would ultimately pay for those repairs, and without seeking any compensation from the State of Maine Judicial Branch." he said. "Although we now have a dispute with a subcontractor and insurers regarding those costs, Consigli worked in close collaboration with the roofing subcontractor to complete the required repairs, and hope that we can continue to do so in order to attempt to resolve this dispute."

BDN writer Nick McCrea contributed to this report.

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