ROCKLAND, Maine — An Oklahoma company has filed a lawsuit that claims Central Maine Power Company owes it more than $1.1 million for a Rockport project.
Matrix North American Construction Inc. of Tulsa filed the lawsuit last week in Knox County Unified Court. Justice Daniel Billings rejected the construction company’s request for the court to expedite Matrix’s effort to get a lien placed on the utility.
Matrix was hired in July 2014 to rebuild an electrical substation on Meadow Road in Rockport and install four miles of fiber-optic lines to the facility, according to the lawsuit. The project was expected to take 10 weeks to complete but ended up taking from September 2014 until February 2015, according to the lawsuit.
The company said that its bid, which was not disclosed in the lawsuit, was based on a summer construction season, which would have resulted in lower costs. The project, however, was delayed for reasons beyond its control but in the control of CMP, according to the lawsuit.
In addition, there were numerous change orders requested by the utility that expanded the scope and complexity of the project and added to its costs, Matrix claims. All the extra work done was central to completion of the project, according to the contractor. The construction company said, for example, that the fiber-optic lines had to be placed higher on poles than had been planned and that the poles were in such poor shape that their workers could not climb the poles but had to rent equipment to reach the higher placements.
In addition, because the project extended into the winter, the construction company had to rent heaters and had to perform snow removal to do the work.
The amount owed for the additional time and work is $1,116,380, according to the lawsuit.
A telephone call seeking comment from CMP on Tuesday morning was not immediately returned.
Matrix is represented by attorney Jeffrey Piampiano of Portland.