DelDOT settles lawsuit over failed bridge project

Delaware’s Department of Transportation has settled a lawsuit against contractors involved in a failed effort to build a new bridge over the Indian River Inlet in coastal Sussex County.

The settlement announced Friday calls for the state to be paid $5.25 million. That’s a fraction of the roughly $20 million or more in damages DelDOT sought in its 2011 lawsuit against Florida-based Figg Bridge Engineers and its subcontractor, Atlanta-based MACTEC Engineering.

The companies, which deny responsibility in the settlement, collaborated in a project that was scrapped in 2007 because underground soils supporting fill dirt on the bridge approach ramps were settling slower and deeper than expected, making the ramps unstable.

A new bridge, which carries traffic on heavily traveled Route 1, was later built using a different design and contractors.