Headline
In this 2011 photo, Jorge Delgado, a worker with Conway Construction, works on the Morrison Bridge project to replace steel grating with new lightweight fiber-reinforced polymer panels.
(Benjamin Brink/The Oregonian/OregonLive)
Correction appended.
A jury is on track to begin deliberating Thursday on who's to blame for the faulty Morrison Bridge decking: Multnomah County, the contractor, the decking supplier or the manufacturer.
Of the eight men and six women on the jury, 12 can also decide all parties are to blame or just a few. Two others have served as alternate jurors.
Closing arguments began Wednesday, and attorneys relied on emails, contracts, expert testimony and pictures related to the $4.2 million project on a bridge used by about 50,000 motorists a day.
Months after the project was completed in March 2012, the decking started coming apart. The county seeks more than $6 million in damages, including $1 million to investigate the problems, said attorney Joel Mullin.
The county hired Conway Construction Co. of Ridgefield, Washington, in 2011 after the company offered the lowest bid. Conway hired North Carolina-based ZellComp Inc., which supplied the decking materials. ZellComp hired Virginia's Strongwell Corp., the manufacturer of the fiber-reinforced polymer, also known as FRP decking.
Nothing was brief Wednesday.
Multnomah County Circuit Judge Karin Immergut spent 24 minutes reading the undisputed facts and jury guidelines.
Mullin, whose closing statement lasted almost 1.5 hours, said Strongwell manufactured a defective product with ZellComp's knowledge, and crews under Conway's supervision botched the installation. He pointed to testimony from Conway's expert witness.
Last week, Eric Anderson of Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, told jurors that 17 percent of the screws were fastened too close to the edge of the floor beams or missed their mark altogether.
Mullin also showed emails which he said demonstrate that ZellComp and Strongwell knew some of the decking panels had problems -- but hid their worries from the county.
Douglas Weigel, Conway's attorney, traced problems to the relationship between Ken Huntley, the county engineer in charge of the project, and Dan Richards, ZellComp's CEO and president, that began years before Conway entered the project.
In developing bid specifications for contractors, Huntley nearly chose a different FRP supplier as the sole option for contractors, but Richards insisted on being included. The other company backed out, leaving ZellComp as the only choice with just months before bidding opened.
Weigel, who also spoke for 1.5 hours, said Huntley rushed the design of the project and neglected to fully research ZellComp products. Publicly available university studies, for example, showed problems with the products, he said.
Daniel Nichols, ZellComp's attorney, finished up the day's closing arguments, saying his client's product passed testing by Portland State University.
Nichols said the decking failed in part because the county chose to add materials, such padding to even out the height of the floor beams.
All parties Wednesday have also partly blamed incorrect calculations by Hardesty & Hanover, an engineering firm hired by ZellComp. Huntly reviewed and approved the firm's plans, attorneys said.
Strongwell's attorneys will begin their closing arguments Thursday morning, and Mullin will have time to rebut arguments from the other attorneys.
-- Tony Hernandez
thernandez@oregonian.com
503-294-5928
@tonyhreports
The story has been edited to correct the number of jurors who will deliberate the facts of the trial.