Council president not troubled by DIA concrete

Rocky Mountain News

Published July 19, 2006 at midnight

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Denver’s new city council president Michael Hancock says he’s satisfied with the city’s response to questions concerning runways at DIA.

Hancock, whose district includes the airport, said today that he finds nothing new in reports that the city hopes to replace over a thousand concrete panels in the next two years.

The Rocky Mountain News reported Saturday that most of the construction planned at DIA involves two runways built in the early 1990s by Ball, Ball and Brosamer. The number of deteriorating panels found at the airport has skyrocketed in recent years, with the cost of repairs estimated at $30 million and rising.

A San Francisco lawsuit filed by a former runway subcontractor accused Ball, Ball and Brosamer of rigging tests to mask the use of under strength concrete at DIA.

The suit charged that the firm — known as the 3Bs — did the same manipulation at another runway in Colorado Springs.

That runway failed and is now being replace at a cost of $37.7 million.

Hancock said that he was in contact with airport management and was assured that the Denver airfield faces no such immediate crisis.

Colorado Springs officials have said they were unaware of the accusations concerning the 3Bs. They had concluded that much of the problem involving the failed runway was caused by a chemical reaction exacerbated by a deicing compound.

They now says the city attorney will be examining the issue.

The 3Bs was a California construction firm. It no longer exists.

After the federal government joined the California suit, the 3Bs settled the case out of court.

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