b'GENERAL AVIATIONTKI 55unfinished construction site sitting right there in the center field of the airport.When the city took over following Westerns demise, it required McRight-Smith to obtain performance and payment bonds for the project. Lexon Insurance Company, a member company of global insurer Sompo International, issued the requisite performance and payment bonds. After McRight-Smith went under, a demand was made on those bonds, and Nicholson Professional Consulting was hired to investigate the claim. It then called upon Nicholson Management Co., an affiliated construction management firm that works almost exclusively on surety cases.Roads, bridges, airports, schoolswere pretty well-versed in any type of construction project you can think of, says Mason Fleming, a Nicholson project executive. MASON FLEMINGConstruction at TKI resumed in December 2022, and the terminal was completed nine months later, though the task wasnt easy. Beyond deciding which of its predecessors subcontractors to keep on the joband settling up with those that were still owed moneyNicholson also contended with damages on a worksite left idle for months. Exposed ductwork was moldy and had to be replaced, and steel beams impacted by weather needed remediation. There were a number of things in each stage of the project where it kind of went backwards a step before it could go 40,000-square-foot hangar opened 12 months later. In Septemberforward, Carley says. [Nicholsons team] is very good at stepping 2019, Western began erecting the terminals steel framework,into a very difficult situation and making things work.though progress quickly ground to a halt. First up was finishing the terminals roof structure to make the Carley explains that with roughly $10 million spent, Westernbuilding weathertight. Then, crews evaluated leftover mechanical, recognized it could not deliver the custom-designed building it hadelectrical and plumbing systems to determine what was needed to promised with its remaining budget. Attempts at value engineeringfinish the job.and obtaining additional loans failed, and Western filed forYou take a freeze-frame of where its at, look at the immediately bankruptcy in spring 2020. preceding steps to where work currently is, and most of the time Barry Shelton, an assistant city manageryou can pick it right back up, explains Fleming.in McKinney, began working with the airportNicholson retained 75% to 80% of the subcontractors working around the time of Westerns failure, whichunder McRight-Smith, and Fleming characterizes the overall work he terms messy. An apparently simple Planhis firm inherited as solidly performed. The subcontractors hadnt B arose when the city issued new debt andbeen negligent; the primary contractor simply ran out of money, he turned the job over to the runner-up from itsexplains. Once the project was finished, Fleming says a sense of initial search. McRight-Smith Constructionpride and accomplishment permeated all involved. began work in April 2021, though it ultimatelyBARRY SHELTONsuffered the same fate as Western. This time, pandemic-driven supply chain problems and cost increases tipped the scales. By June 2022, McRight-Smith Construction had also filed for bankruptcy. Progress at TKI was once again frozen. Its never easy as a staff member to go to the city council and say a project has gone belly up, SheltonPlanningrecalls. But they understood we had a partiallyDELTA AIRPORT Engineeringconstructed terminal building. If we were to pull out, notCONSULTANTS, INC. EnvironmentalIndustry Analysisonly would we have lost out on the positive aspects ofwww.deltaairport.com Program Management the project, but wed also have the negative aspect of anConstruction AdministrationBusiness & Financial PlanningAirportImprovement.comNovember | December 2023'