Olympic-Sized Headache Stadium Construction Woes Have Sides Heading To Court

Although no athlete has stepped on its field yet, Olympic Stadium has become a battlefield for accusations of poor design and financial double-dealing.

The day after the designer of the stadium sued the Olympic organizing committee for allegedly refusing to pay overtime, the organizers called the lawsuit “retaliation” for their demand that the design team pay for repairs at the unfinished arena.

The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games issued an unusually strong statement Thursday in response to the suit by the Atlanta Stadium Design Team, a consortium of four engineering firms that designed the $230 million stadium. ACOG has not responded in court.

Wednesday, the design team filed suit in Fulton County Superior Court seeking $4 million for 47,600 hours of allegedly unpaid overtime. It was built up accommodating myriad changes sought by ACOG under “chaotic conditions,” the suit said.

Among other things, the suit said, ACOG “imposed often unnecessary and disruptive bureaucratic obstacles to effective and efficient design and construction” of the stadium. The contract to design the stadium was “extremely one-sided” in favor of ACOG, but the organizing committee convinced the design team that ACOG could be trusted to act fairly anyway, the suit said.

The designers contend ACOG either doesn’t have the $4 million or knows it will run out of money and won’t be able to compensate them after the Games.

But ACOG said it is the design team that is not abiding by the contract.

The Associated Press reported recently it will cost $3 million to repair and reinforce the stadium, which is scheduled to open for a preOlympic track meet in May.

An engineering review found that some sections, especially the press box, might sag or crack unless the work is done.

ACOG has paid for the repairs to ensure stadium construction remains on schedule, but it expected to be reimbursed by the designers.