Dive Brief:

• A Santa Clara County official said the county has issued a formal notification to Turner Construction — one of the world's largest construction companies — that it is in "default" by $300 million on its contract to build a 168-room hospital bed building on the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center campus. 
• The county may terminate the deal for not safely completing the facility on time. County officials said the delay has led to the loss of approximately $36 million a year in revenue.. 
• New safety protocols were put in place by the county after an explosion last September, but Turner has not complied, according to the county.

Dive Insight:

Turner spokesman Larry Kamer said that it’s "wrong" to blame all the delays on the company. He said hundreds of unexpected change orders and thousands of requests for changes and clarifications to the design added time to the project.

The original project contract was about $291 million, but since then, Turner has asked for an additional $66 million, followed by another $9 million. The building was initially scheduled to open Sept. 19, but NBC Bay Area reported the complex is nowhere close to completion. 

"If the county wants to fix this problem, this problem can be fixed,” Kamer said. “We believe the county has not managed this problem well."

Turner was recently lauded for completing a stadium for the San Francisco 49ers on time and under budget. In fact, the hospital and the stadium were under construction at the same time. County Executive Jeff Smith said he believes Turner prioritized the stadium project over the hospital.

But Turner denies the stadium had any impact on the hospital's progress. “The Levi's Stadium project had nothing to do with this project,” Kamer said. "Turner builds 1,500 buildings a year. It knows how to build two projects at a time."