Sacramento-area freeway builder drops out of I-80 project

The lead contractor on a $133 million expansion and rehab of Interstate 80 in north Sacramento has been forced to step aside due to financial difficulties, company officials said Monday.

C.C. Myers Inc., a Rancho Cordova-based construction company, turned control of that project and several other projects in Northern California over to partnering companies on Jan. 1, company President Steve Francis said.

Francis declined to comment on his company’s money issues. “We are restructuring,” he said. “It is very complicated.”

Bay Cities Paving and Grading of Concord, which has served as Myers’ partner on the north Sacramento freeway project, has taken over sole control. Bay Cities officials could not be reached Monday.

State Department of Transportation officials on Monday said work is moving forward on the I-80 project under Bay Cities and should not be affected by Myers’ troubles.

“We don’t expect it to slow the project down,” said John Rodriguez, Caltrans’ north region construction chief. “We were informed they were turning over their role as managing partner.

“Our contract is with the joint venture, Bay Cities and C.C. Myers. There has been no change as far as we are concerned.”

The Myers company has been in business since 1977. It has been employee-owned since former owner C.C. Myers lost the firm in a 2008 bankruptcy. C.C. Myers formed a new company in 2010 called Myers and Sons, which also does freeway contract work with Caltrans in the Sacramento area. Although the two companies share the Myers name, they are not associated.

C.C. Myers Inc. also was forced this month to turn control over to partners on projects in Fairfield, Petaluma and Antioch.

Francis said his company has struggled because of competition and a lack of major road projects. He declined to say whether it would close.

“It’s a difficult market,” he said. “There is not a lot of work, and pricing is very aggressive. The type of projects we have done are few and far between.”

The Sacramento project, called the “80 Across the Top,” involves rebuilding and widening 10 miles of the freeway from the Sacramento/Yolo county line to just west of Watt Avenue.

Caltrans said work continues this week. Crews were to close the Norwood Avenue onramp to westbound I-80 for 22 days beginning at 10 p.m. Monday.

The project already has run into several delays and may finish a year behind its original schedule. The work began in 2011 and is currently scheduled to be finished this summer or fall.

One slowdown occurred in 2014 when newly poured concrete on a two-mile section of a lane cracked soon after it cured. Caltrans required the contractor to repour that section. Caltrans has estimated the extra cost at up to $3 million. The state and contractor have not yet come to an agreement on who pays what share of that extra cost.

This story was originally published January 11, 2016 at 1:05 PM with the headline "Sacramento-area freeway builder drops out of I-80 project."