Representative Projects

Project Counsel & Litigation Experience

Adviser since 2011 to the Design-Build Joint Venture for this $1.2 billion project that will serve as the new gateway to San Francisco. The project replaces the 1936 viaduct that leads from the Golden Gate Bridge through the historic Presidio, a military reservation dating to 1776, and into the Marina District of San Francisco. The Project Funding includes Federal Grants, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Funds, State Highway Operations and Preservation Program Grants, Transportation Congestion Relief Program Allocations, State Local Partnership Program Funds, the Prop K Sales Tax, the Regional Improvement Program, Metropolitan Transportation Commission Bridge Tolls, and Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District Contributions.

Currently serving as Project Counsel to the Oakland Connector Project, a $450 Million design-build project, encompassing an elevated guideway and a comfortable, cable-driven, transit system providing a light vehicle passenger link from the Coliseum Station of BART to the Oakland International Airport. We assisted the proposal team through a one-year procurement cycle and advised the Joint Venture on the project labor agreement (PLA) and public works law. We also helped negotiate major subcontracts, including the principal guideway and traction system components obtained from the U.S. Subsidiaries of the Doppelmayr Cable Car GmbH of Wulfurt, Austria. We have worked with Oakland, California labor organizations to achieve an aggressive local employment goal.

Served as Project Counsel for John Wayne Airport, a position held 1985-1998, including the design and construction of the new $340 million airport expansion. We were instrumental in the drafting of the construction management and design agreements, the construction contract and bid set, as well as the resolution of project claims and litigation. The project included a substantially low engineer’s estimate of construction, the resulting decision by the project manager to engage in an extensive re-design of the terminal during construction, and the eventual bankruptcy of the steel supplier to the project. The public owner also decided to terminate a major contractor for default due to the lack of a current contractor’s license.

Served as Project-Counsel for the Joint Venture that built the Alfred-Zampa Memorial Bridge on Interstate 80 over the Carquinez Straits in the San Francisco Bay Area ($340 million) during 2000-2004. This project is one of the largest Caltrans Projects and the first suspension bridge in 35 years in California. We chaired a weekly legal, claims and safety meeting and spearheaded the claims effort that resulted in more than $43 million in project change orders. These involved numerous geotechnical and soils engineering issues regarding the North Anchorage, the Suspension Tower Constructability & Seismic Design, Deep Foundations, the Spinning Process for the Suspension Cables, various mechanical and bolt issues, and a wide range of problems associated with a multi-national project team (which included companies based in the U.S., England, Norway, Japan, France, Holland, Spain and Germany).

Served as lead trial counsel for a $147 million public agency lawsuit (1995) involving six major concrete pipeline failures. This was the largest construction defect case in Arizona history. The siphons were 21 feet in diameter and approximately one mile long. They carried the Colorado River allocation of Arizona to Phoenix and Tempe. The pipes were undergoing progressive corrosion failure at the time the case was filed in Federal District Court in Arizona. The case was dismissed by the Federal District Court as against Ameron and Peter Kiewit on jurisdictional grounds based upon a Motion to Dismiss. A favorable settlement was obtained while on appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for a waiver of attorneys' fees.