UGA cancels $18.6M contract with firm in garage collapse

By RHONDA COOK

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The University of Georgia backed off its plan to give Hardin Construction Co., an $18.6 million contract to expand the school’s football facilities just days after a second Hardin project collapsed into a pile of concrete rubble, according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

Hardin was awarded two UGA projects in April; a 162,000-square-foot deck at the intramural fields and a 152,000-square-foot deck at the UGA Performing Arts Center. And in June, the UGA Athletic Association told Hardin it planned to give the company a third project on the campus — the expansion of Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall, which would include new training areas and coaches’ offices.

Three days later, on June 29, the Centergy parking deck in Midtown Atlanta partially collapsed.

Hardin had built the deck five years earlier and it was the second major problem with a Hardin project in little more than six months.

In December, an elevated walkway Hardin was building at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens collapsed, killing a worker.

The day after the Midtown parking deck collapse, UGA Associate Athletic Director Arthur Johnson told Hardin the Athletic Association was reconsidering its choice for the Butts-Mehre project, the Chronicle reported.

A week later, Johnson told Hardin’s chairman, Brantley Barrow, the Athletic Association had decided to give the Butts-Mehre contract to another company, Brasfield & Gorrie, the Chronicle reported.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has fined Hardin $6,300 for the Botanical Gardens walkway collapse; Hardin is appealing.

The cause of the Centergy park deck collapse is not yet known.