Following up on last month’s sudden removal of Jasper Construction from the $34 million renovation of Guelph Police Services’ headquarters, a new contractor has been hired to complete the project. The City of Guelph announced Thursday that Perini Management will be taking over the project to ensure that the renovations are finally completed more than a year after they were supposed to be finished.

To recap: On June 30, the City notified the bonding agent who holds the bond on the Police HQ reno that the contractor was in default on the contract after “deficiency concerns” were reported to the City in writing earlier in June. Jasper was dismissed from the project, though the City was firm in it’s assertion that this was not a termination of the contract. The ball was then in the bonding agent’s court to find a new general contractor, and they’ve selected Perini Management.

So who are Perini Management? According to their website, Perini Management Services is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tutor Perini Corporation, which is a U.S.-based company that has holdings worldwide. If you look at their map of global projects, it seems that most of their Canadian work is based around northern Canada. Thye sound accomplished, but should the City be concerned about some of the things that come up about Perini, and Tutor Pernini, when you do some quick Googling?

From Pennsylvania, a state senator expressed concerns about Perini’s business practices through a subsidiary on a large-scale project to improve an interchange along the I-83 highway. “I’ve read countless articles and reports on the company where they (Tutor Perini) go in on the low bid and then submit additional cost overruns with lengthy project delays,” said Senator Kristin Phillips-Hill during a hearing according to the York Dispatch.

In Washington State last December, a jury awarded the department of transportation $57.2 million in damages because of delays in the construction of a downtown Seattle highway project caused by technical difficulties with a tunnel-boring maching. Perini was one of two firms that formed the project’s contractor, Seattle Tunnel Partners (STP). “We never wavered from our position that it was always the contractor’s responsibility to fix the tunneling machine and that taxpayers should not pay the repair bill,” said Washington Governor Jay Inslee in a statement according to the Seattle Times.

Tutor Perini is also at the centre of controversy in California where they’re a contractor on the state’s bullet train project. According to the Los Angeles Times, Tutor Perini is building rail structures in Madera and Fresno counties on a $1 billion contract, but recently claimed that delays in the project will double the budget.

As readers will recall, the Guelph Police headquarters renovation was third project in about same number of weeks that Jasper Construction was removed from by client municipalities and boards including a community centre in London, and a school in Lambton Kent.

Obviously, the City’s press release does not deal with Perini’s legal struggles in other jurisdictions, but it did say that Perini has been on-site at the police station, and that they are “working closely” with the City to get that project back on track. On top of that, a report will be brought to council later this year that will outline any potential budget requests, rationales, and where the money will come from.