New Rochelle claims bad blacktop job paves way for lawsuit

The city of New Rochelle claims that an asphalt repaving project was done so poorly that it had to spend nearly $900,000 repairing the repairs.

The city sued Highway Rehabilitation Corp. Sept. 13 in Westchester Supreme Court, accusing the Brewster company of negligence, breach of warranty and breach of contract.

Highway Rehabilitation used “inferior materials, incorrect tools, improper machinery or improper methods,” according to the complaint, and delivered “a work product that does not meet industry standards or the quality warranted in the contract.”

Highway Rehab specializes in an asphalt recycling process that purports to restore worn out pavement for less money. A 13-mile job, for instance, costs the same as a traditional 10-mile asphalt paving project, according to the company”™s website.

A train of trucks softens up the old asphalt with heat, cuts the asphalt, blends in a thickening agent and compacts the mix. Then it can be topped off with a thin layer of new asphalt.

Company spokesman Adam Wood said in an email that Highway Rehabilitation does not provide a finished product, and that its work must be covered with a surface treatment, or overlay, as specified in the contract.

“For over 35 years, Highway Rehabilitation Corp. has conducted quality work, on-time and on-budget, in hundreds of municipalities in eight states across the Northeast and New England,” Wood said, and the company is committed to resolving the dispute amicably.

Last year, the city awarded Highway Rehabilitation a $294,000, publicly bid contract to repave 60,372-square-feet of Pelham Road, Webster Avenue and Weyman Avenue. The work was done in eight days in July and August 2018.

Less than two months later, the city claims, the restored pavement began deteriorating: “breaking down and delaminating; causing cracks and potholes to form; and resulting in damages to the roadways, streets, curbs, and other public and private property.”

New Rochelle claims that Highway Rehabilitation refused to fix or replace the pavement and that the city has spent more than $890,000 repairing streets and private property damaged by “substandard and inferior work.”

The city is demanding unspecified damages to be determined at trial.

New Rochelle is represented by Corporate Counsel Kathleen E. Gill and assistant counsel Dawn M. Warren.