Laraway Schools Sued Over New School

JOLIET, IL - Poulos Construction Company, one of the contractors hired to build the new Laraway School on Joliet's far east side, filed a recent lawsuit at the Will County Courthouse seeking monetary damages from the Laraway Consolidated School District. The lawsuit accuses the district of causing a substantial delay in the construction schedule. The new elementary building is at 1715 South Rowell Ave.

The Aug. 20 lawsuit was filed by attorneys Claire Stephens and Robert Harris of the Chicago law firm of Harris Winick Harris on West Wacker Drive. The plaintiffs are asking a Will County judge to award monetary damages in the amount of $750,000, court documents reflect. According to its website, Poulos is a third generation family-operated Chicago based -general contracting and construction management firm.

The lawsuit states that Poulos was slated to begin work on Aug. 28, 2017 "and the project was scheduled to reach substantial completion by June 1, 2018 in time for the beginning of the fall 2018 school year.

"However, as a result of front-end delays and through no fault of Poulos, Poulos was unable to begin the exterior framing for the project until October 28, 2017, a full two months after Poulos' scheduled start on the project," the lawsuit states.

Poulos and Laraway schools signed an agreement on May 16, 2017 and the initial value of the Laraway contract was more than $5.2 million, "subject to net increases in the contract sum by change orders," court documents state.

Among the notables, the lawsuit alleges that "the exterior wall framing work was initially scheduled to commence on August 28, 2018 (sic) but was delayed in excess of 50 days as a result of certain trades' failure to erect the structural steel in accordance with the schedule. As a consequence, Poulos was unable to commence certain work until the winter months, which caused additional delays and costs due to the extreme cold conditions which lowered the productivity of Poulos' manpower.

"Furthermore, trades such as roofing, windows and storefronts failed to complete the project's envelope and thereby hindered the installation of certain materials such as drywall and flooring," the lawsuit argues.

According to the complaint, "the June 1, 2018 scheduled date of substantial completion has now come and passed. Poulos continues to expand daily manpower hours and incur additional costs on the project not contemplated within the contract sum. In addition ... the cost of labor increased after June 1, 2018 due to trade union cost increases."

Project Background

The lawsuit explains that Laraway's school district acquired the roughly 26-acre parcel on Rowell Avenue to build a new Laraway Elementary School back in 2011 "in order to address the safety concerns at the existing Laraway Elementary School located at 275 West Laraway Road in Joliet ... which lies on a major semi-truck route and just east of the railroad tracks."

In 2016, Laraway schools hired Legat Architects as the project architect. That same year, Laraway schools hired Henry Bros. as construction manager and to administer the contract. In the spring of 2017, Poulos submitted a bid to perform general trades including labor, material, equipment for carpentry, paneling, insulation, fire protection, sealing, doors, door frames, flooring and much more, the suit outlines.

Poulos also noted in its lawsuit how the company "has suffered continuous delays ... during the past 10 months including delays to work on the roof, decking, masonry, window installation and basic building envelope."

On Tuesday, Joliet Patch stopped by the school and saw several contractors busy on the job including some men who were standing on the roof.

Images via John Ferak/Joliet Patch Editor