By Ryan Schlehuber

A $1 million lawsuit was filed in November by Mackinac Bridge Authority and Michigan Department of Transportation charging that a painting company failed to complete warranty work for a job completed in 2003. The lawsuit now is in the hands of a federal court. It names as defendants Allstate Painting and Contracting Company of Brunswick, Ohio, and its surety company, American Motorists Insurance Company of Long Grove, Illinois.

The Authority first filed a complaint with Mackinac County's 11th Circuit Court November 7, but the suit was transferred to the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan Monday, December 1.

The bridge painting project involved sandblasting and applying three coats of paint to steel posts, beams, chords, and other metal parts that form the trusses supporting the bridge deck. It was awarded to Allstate under an $8 million contract in 2002 and officially completed in Nov - ember 2003.

The contract was for the 1,800-foot south side span from the south tower to the south cable bent pier, and included a twoyear warranty.

A two-year warranty inspection in October and November 2005 revealed defects which Allstate began to repair in September 2006, but, according to the suit, never completed.

Workers for the company, "just left" before the work was finished, and repairs are now being completed by a Mackinac Bridge Authority crew, Bob Sweeney, the Authority's executive secretary, told The St. Ignace News Monday, January 5.

He declined to comment as to why the company may have left before the project was done.

MBA workers will complete the remaining work this summer, he said.

The $1 million being sought is the estimated cost for bridge workers to complete the repair work under the warranty.

Bids to have the work completed by outside contractors came in at between $2 million and $4 million.