Jackson Jambalaya

LOL - Holy shit.

This is what happens when the lowest bid is accepted.

I hope his GL is in force.

Who was the "contractor"?

Which shopping center was the contractor hired to demolish?

Thats the most Jackson thing I have read all day.

The contractor should submit a change order to include the costs to demolish the abandoned City Hall.

Are we Sure that the City gave the contractor the correct address for the demolition? Could the work location discussed in the bid documents have been confusing in any way?

Pro tip: It's important to conduct a site visit With the client before submitting a bid. Then, before starting work, go back to the site with the project manager. Gotta make sure that everyone is on the same page.

Infuriating and unbelievable that a contractor is incompetent enough to allow this to happen. Hope they have good insurance.

2:51, the one behind old city hall on Lake Harbor, to make way to widen Lake Harbor at US 51.

You won't find out but this has to be on the City. They surely entered into a contract with the contractor and he done a good job on the old strip mall. Why was City not paying attention and preventing the "extra" work???

3:01 must be a "real" contractor - the voice of experience is a valuable lesson, if you are listening.

No wonder he got the low bid.

That's what you call upselling to generate change orders!

send them over to Briarwood to speed up that process which appears to be more for show than for demolition

One of the issues with the RFP process is that you really get the lowest bidder. Rarely do you see one be higher than low bid, but "best" overall.

3:01 is correct, you need both pre-bid and post-award meetings with the contractor, and preferably a client rep on site as needed. If not, things like this happen.

@310 - the City isn't responsible to be there when the contractor starts his work. This isn't like an underground utility contract, or a road building contract, where there is a project engineer or architect on site at all times; this was a demolition. It is possible that when someone with the City happened to drive by and see that the trackhoe was working on the wrong building, they stopped the demolition before it went further.

Yes, the contractor has done a good job on the old strip mall - once the equipment operator turned the machines around and moved to the proper site.


301 makes a couple of good 'possible' points - what address was put into the bid documents/contract documents. Another question would be - is the contractor on the project also the operator of the equipment, or is the operator a hired hand? Assuming that the contractor is not the operator, then a site visit with the employee should always be done prior to the start, as the one who prepared the quote probably knows the specifics of the actual work to be done.

Has Toni Johnson been able to move one of her newly acquired big screen TVs to Polo's current quarters? She should still have a few extra based on the ones she used her Zucherberg dollars to purchase.

The city has been wanting to sell that building. It appears they just sold the building to the insurance company.

Potentially not covered by insurance.

@3:52 - comment belongs on Polo - although where Polo goes does often appear to be similar to this demolition disaster

@ "One of the issues with the RFP process is that you really get the lowest bidder. Rarely do you see one be higher than low bid, but 'best' overall."

The last time I checked, the RFP process does not work the same as the advertise for bids process.

I deal with contractors every day. The lack of communication is unreal. Every day I go on a job site and find them screwing up. The foreman will say “I didn’t know that”. I will say “I notified your boss per the contract, and I have proof, did he not tell you?”

5:39. That’s the problem with architects and how you do your business. You should have someone onsite during the construction (similar to what engineers do) and then the screw ups would be minimized. Isn’t the saying “architects plant bushes around their mistakes “?

My late father was the architect on the original building, which was built as a commercial printing facility back in the early 80s. When the owner moved to Canton the city bought it and moved City Hall functions out of the Library.

A few notes -- an architect is responsible for construction or new facilities or renovation of existing facilities -- owners are responsible for demolition because architects have no control and a situation like this can happen.

Also many architects (like my father) worked just to prepare plans for construction by others. Supervision of construction falls on the owner (again in case something happens the architect cannot control).

7:42. My point exactly! Why should owner be responsible for supervision of construction? They typically don’t know how to read plans/specifications so how can they supervise? You all need to raise your fee and keep someone onsite.

Remember this all started when the laundrymat next door wanted to expand.

Gene had had enough of such a business in his fair city and bought out the check cashing and trophy shop to boot!

7:42, smart owners hire the architects to do construction administration (CA).

@8:28 PM,

Please cite your source to backup your statement. I call BS!!

This demolition of the strip center was due to turn lane expansion on Lake Harbor.

You may not like Gene but don't LIE about the man.

628 - not an 'architect' as my workers used to refer to them - but that is not their job; unless, of course, the owners want to pay for that daily supervision.

Contractors agree to manage the projects; architects are there to oversee the parts that require 'looking at' before they are covered up - pouring concrete, for example.

Engineers are often put onsite daily to perform CE&I functions because that work that they are lookng at is covered up every day. Before you bury a water/sewer line, or spread the asphalt, whatever - it can't be seen later.

And a job like this probably didn't deserve an architect or an engineer - this was hiring someone to demolish a building. No need for the city to incur several thousand more dollars to have 'an architect' standing around to make sure they got the correct building.

That, my friend, is the job of the person who contracted to do the work - and I'm saying that from the side that I have been involved with. If we agree to do 'x' for $xxxxx.xxx,then we are supposed to know where x is located and how to do it.

8:44 - to carry on my earlier post, this is not "CONSTRUCTION" administraiton. This is demolition. There is no architectural work involved.

Yes, the city could have sent an employee down to the strip mall and watched, and they could have told the contractor's employee they were screwing up. But the city is paying the contractor to do their job.

Ain't no need for an architect on this project. The only work to supervise is to take down the building, haul the crap away, properly dispose of it, and clean up the site when you leave.

Architects design buildings. Engineers insure the proper work is being INSTALLED. This, again, is demolition. Why should the city pay someone several tens of thousands of dollars to make sure the contractor doesn't tear down the wrong building?

8:45. Everyone on here knows the left turn from Lake Harbor onto 51 South was a cluster mess before the extension to the west. Why didn’t Gene and his engineers address that until now???

@9:22 PM,

Because that was an MDOT project since it was on Hwy 51 ROW.

Stop complaining and pointing fingers, people; let's make lemonade from lemons! Ridgeland now has a great piece of commercial property shovel-ready for development!

How convenient for Gene

7:37. I thought Ridgeland mostly paid for the extension of Lake Harbor to the west but not the bridge over I-55?

May I ask if any City employees were inside the new building across the street from the old city hall who may have noticed anything unusual? I know they shouldn’t be staring out windows but you would think it may have caught someone’s eye before it got to that point. Anyway, this isn’t the first time this happened and it won’t be the last. Poor communication obviously.

Was that building still in use?

On another note…the Office Building at Briarwood is being demolished, but in a most unorthodox way. The company has elected to start from the bottom and proceed up instead of the traditional way of starting at the top and going down. This might not end well for the workers on site.

12:19 The new building across 51 from the old city hall is a shooting range that isn't open yet. What are you talking about?

The old city hall was vacant and for sale. Faircloth Demolition was the contractor.

As an actual, fairly large contractor….this reinforces to me once again that the general public has very little understanding of my world. I have to dabble and understand just about every single aspect of the business world. I’d hate to think I ever talk about other facets with as little understanding as you people.

Nothing unorthodox about the Briarwood demo. They're ripping everything out and leaving the steel frame. Easily done with a large boom with a shear on the end. Start at the top or bottom, doesn't matter. Most that I've seen start at the Botton. When done, the frame gets dismantled starting at the top. No activity today but lots of equipment on site. Looks like they are 2/3 of the way up.

Is @2:13 Faircloth Construction?

The remainder of Ridgeland's old City Hall has been demolished and removed.