Lawsuit Filed on December 17, 2020
The Bear Valley Community Services District (District) has filed a lawsuit for professional negligence and other related claims against Willdan Engineering (Willdan) in Kern County Superior Court arising out of engineering services performed by Willdan in connection with a recent District pavement rehabilitation project (Project) that involved the repaving of several miles of two of the District’s most heavily used roadways: Bear Valley Road and Cumberland Road. The Project began to fail just months after the work was completed with cracks, deterioration, and other failures occurring throughout the Project area.
The District retained a professional engineer to review the Project design and construction, and the engineer determined that Willdan was negligent in performing its contracted engineering services during the design and construction of the Project. The District spent nearly $4.5 million on the Project and now faces significant additional costs to fix the Project failures.
The District maintains over 110 miles of roadway in the Bear Valley Springs community, and like many small public agencies has limited financial resources to draw on for these types of repair projects.
The District hoped to resolve its dispute with Willdan informally, however, Willdan has denied all responsibility for the failure of the Project. As a result, the District was left with no choice but to file a lawsuit against Willdan seeking monetary damages for Willdan’s alleged negligence and deficient performance in its role as the District’s Professional Engineering Consultant for the Project.