20020672 Ver 3_Attachment 20 - 10-07-14 NCDOT chair won't discuss Boggs Pvg contract_20141124

NC DOT chair won’t discuss Boggs Paving
contract
By Steve Harrison
[e-mail]
Posted: Tuesday, Oct. 07, 2014
Five weeks after the head of Monroe-based Boggs Paving pleaded guilty to defrauding the state and
federal government, a top N.C. Department of Transportation official is declining to say whether it
will seek to remove the company from a team hired to build the $700 million Monroe
Bypass/Connector.
Ned Curran, chair of the DOT board, wouldn’t comment Monday on whether the state will move to
change contractors.
In addition to Boggs Paving President Carl “Drew” Boggs, five other people involved with Boggs
Paving have pleaded guilty stemming from what the federal government said was a scheme to defraud
the government for $87 million.
“It’s safe to say that I’m not at liberty to talk about a matter that might come before the board,”
Curran said in an interview Monday after speaking to the Charlotte City Council on transportation
issues.
Earlier this year, when Boggs and other executives were indicted, the DOT said it had the ability to
re-do the contract if it felt that was in the public interest.
The DOT board, which Curran chairs, is a public body. Board members often discuss issues that are
under consideration before any vote.
Curran is the president and chief executive of The Bissell Cos. in Charlotte.
Earlier this year, when several Boggs executives were indicted, Curran said any DOT decision would
be based in part on the nature of the charges against the Boggs employees.
On Monday, Curran said the issue “is complicated by the fact that there is no direct arrangement with
Boggs. That is something that has to be considered.”
The DOT contract is officially with Monroe Bypass Constructors, comprised of Boggs Paving, United
Infrastructure Group Inc. and Anderson Columbia Co. Inc. The other two firms are not accused of any
wrongdoing.
The entire bypass is expected to cost roughly $700 million. The contract with the joint venture is for
$308.3 million.
In addition to Drew Boggs, four other Boggs employees have pleaded guilty.
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Attachment 20
Curran was asked Monday whether Boggs, the company, was capable of doing the bypass work after
its executives pleaded guilty.
“I don’t know,” Curran said.
A representative from Boggs Paving didn’t return a call from the Observer Tuesday. James Triplett of
United Infrastructure Group also didn’t return a call from the newspaper.
The bypass has been delayed due to litigation from the Southern Environmental Law Center in Chapel
Hill, which has argued that the state’s federally required environmental impact studies were flawed.
The DOT has since redone its environmental study, though the SELC has again filed suit to stop the
highway.
The delay has been costly for the state. As of early August, it had paid the joint venture roughly $47
million to compensate the firms for mobilizing for construction without having to do any work.
Some of that money has gone to Boggs Paving.
The Boggs executives were charged with receiving millions in federal and state highway contracts
over the past decade by exaggerating the role played by a minority-owned contractor, Styx Trucking
Co.
The federal government said Boggs employees put Styx logos on Boggs’ trucks at the work sites. To
mislead the government, Boggs paid millions to Styx that it secretly funneled back to Boggs’
accounts.
John “Styx” Cuthbertson, the chief executive of Styx, has also pleaded guilty.
Styx was a minority contractor for the Monroe project, but has been replaced.
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