BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER

Kenneth Canty By Jeremy Morrison

The day before Hurricane Sally rolled through the area last September, Kenneth Canty and his crew drove across the recently-opened Pensacola Bay Bridge and noticed something strange— ghosts of the former Three Mile Bridge, decapitated concrete footing—which Canty's Atlantic Meridian Contracting Corp. had been contracted to demolish—still lurked near the waterline. "They hadn't removed hardly any of our work," Canty reflected. "So they'd kicked us off for being behind schedule, but then they didn't do any of the work."

And there was another thing that the AMC crew found odd. There appeared to be an abundance of barges tending to the demolition work. "The day before the hurricane, they were like scurrying around it," Canty said. "We were like, '… don't they know a hurricane's coming? Why are all these barges here?'"

On the other side of the storm, Canty got a phone call—the new bridge had been knocked out. At first, he didn't believe it. "Then we saw it, and we were like, 'My God, those guys didn't move their barges," Canty said.

The presently offline bay bridge, and all the associated direct and indirect economic and logistical consequences, are not Canty's primary concern. The engineer's company, AMC, is currently engaged in dueling lawsuits with Skanska, which has the contract for the new bridge and is now working to repair the structure. The subcontractor's primary concern awaits in the courts.

But Canty does believe that Skanska's decision to scuttle AMC's demolition contract led to delays and, ultimately, too many barges in the bay to move before a hurricane. "Those are our structures that we were tasked with removing; they're all still there," he said. "This is the day before the hurricane. This is five months after we were terminated. All that work should have been done—that's why all those barges were out there; that's why they couldn't move them all." This is why Canty believes Skanska is screwing him. There's a lot at stake. If a connection is made between delays in demolition—delays the engineer claims are ultimately rooted in a racist and shady working environment—it could recast the bridge accident's context into dangerous legal territory for Skanska. "At a minimum, gross negligence," Canty reckons.

The engineer said this is not a unique story, submitting that most catastrophic accidents begin in some faint, embryonic form —a faulty o-ring, a malfunctioning blowout preventer—and eventually end with an attempt to minimize blame and thus economic consequences. "At the bottom of every issue that affects something, there's always two things—a pile of money and a bunch of greedy men," Canty said. "Every single problem, if you dig far enough, you will find that. That's what you're seeing here, a group of greedy men who are trying to protect themselves and a pile of money."

Awaiting resolution in the courts, Canty sat down with Inweekly recently to discuss his experiences with Skanska. This is his story.

VERY STRANGE

Canty is no stranger to Skanska. He began working with the company shortly after graduating from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1995 and later participated in the organization's mentorprotege program.

AMC, the firm Canty owns, began working demolition on the old bay bridge in November 2019. The company—considered a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise, or DBE—had a contract for $3.8 million. "Our contract was to go 7 feet above the water to all the way 2 feet below the mud line," the engineer explained.

Almost immediately, Canty's team realized something was off—"within a week or so, we were like, 'There's something wrong here'"—with a subsequent underwater survey filmed by divers revealing that the lay of the land differed from information provided to AMC. Essentially, the contractor was not made aware that the bridge's fender system, barriers erected to protect the old bridge, contained a waterproof filling called "cold tar." "They didn't say it on the drawings, and they didn't say it on the specs," Canty said. "It made it way more difficult and way more dangerous. Highly dangerous—now you're burning against the steel, and you're getting tiny little explosions because the tar is holding oxygen bubbles."

AMC brought this issue up to Skanska, but according to Canty, the company rebuffed the concerns. "They tell us, 'You don't know what you're talking about; you're just doing a bad job,'" the engineer recalled. "I thought it was very strange."

OUT THERE ON YOUR OWN

According to Canty, the misleading site description—making the work more dangerous, costly and time-consuming—wasn't the only storm AMC weathered upon arrival on the bay bridge job. Working conditions were awash in racist undertones. "There was a lot of things going on that job site in terms of racial harassment and just overall harassment that had been going on," Canty said.

Working in the heavy construction industry, specifically in bridge work, Canty said that he has become familiar with this environment. It's one that's allowed to sometimes fester on the fringes of the frontier, where hardened men are less given to complaining. "This industry is unlike a lot of industries that people are used to. Bridge building and bridge working, heavy construction, it's almost akin to wildcatting," Canty said. "Bridge building, especially. You're kind of out there on your own; you kind of do what you want to do; no one's really out there; no one really wants to be out there—does anyone else want to be out there when it's 30 degrees and the winds blowing? No."

To avoid professional pitfalls—like getting blackballed in the industry for raising

concerns about racism—this sort of working environment is sometimes ignored. "I just try to bully my way through it, but I could see it all day long," Canty said. "For example, they had a tugboat named after one of the founders of the KKK. But stuff like that is like all the time, so you just kind of get used to it, ignore it."

While he had encountered this racist environment before, Canty said that he was surprised to experience it working for Skanska, a company he had worked for on numerous occasions in other parts of the country without incident. "None of this stuff that we were experiencing insofar as racism was from anybody in Pensacola; it was from Skanska," the engineer pointed out, saying that he eventually did voice some racism-related concerns to the company. "I was like, man, I was told if I came down here to this part of the country … I was going to have to watch out for this. But the people of Pensacola are treating me great, very friendly, very sincere. I ask for help, I get it. It's like back home, like Charleston. I said this isn't a problem; they're not projecting that on me, but Skanska was."

LAWSUITS AND THE LARGER QUESTION

WELCOME TO THE TEAM

piece of equipment, took it around to the place, right after we left, crunched it up and took it back," Canty said. "So we took that as a sign of intimidation." Throughout this time, rolling into the COVID-dominated spring of 2020, AMC continued to demolish the bridge. Also, Canty continued to raise concerns about this collection of issues. Finally, Canty said he went straight to FDOT with the concerns about the misleading site plans, which resulted in a virtual meeting between AMC, the state and Skanska. "The FDOT says, 'None of what you told us is a surprise because we gave all these drawings to Skanska that detail what you found,'" Canty said. "That's when Skanska literally pulled down like a shade almost, like put a cover on the camera." That day, the engineer said, AMC's contract was canceled. "They threw us off the job," he said. "Basically, we had to leave town with our tail between our legs." According to FDOT District 3 Public Information Officer (PIO) Ian Satter, the agency didn't really participate in the

In addition to the alleged racist envi- virtual meeting—"we were there just to ronment and misleading site plans, Canty observe"—and, as a matter of practice, is also claiming that Skanska intentionally doesn't get involved in disputes between damaged his equipment in acts meant to contractors and subcontractors. intimidate and delay, with the delays cited "As far as our role in it, it was minimal in AMC's eventual dismissal. at best," Satter said.

The harassment, Canty claims, started The PIO did confirm that FDOT had from the get-go. And that's, again, he said, fulfilled several public records requests somewhat typical. for AMC related to the bridge job. Satter "It actually started as soon as we got also said that the state is following up on on the job," he said. "And sometimes, with Canty's claims regarding racism. these jobs, you're like, 'OK, that's just a Insofar as any resolution between AMC prank.' That's just how they welcome you. and Skanska, each is suing the other and They haze you a little bit. It's a little joke— awaiting a court hearing. In the interim, welcome to the team." AMC's subcontractors wonder if they'll ever

Canty said he didn't immediately catch get paid, and Skanska works to get the damon that it was anything more significant— aged bridge back online by the tourist season. Not until after his boat sunk at the dock in In response to a request for comment Gulf Breeze. "Then I realized "Because we were catching up on AMC's dispute, Skanska provided that's why they had sabotaged the equip ment," the engineer - with them, and they needed to slow us down, so they could Inweekly with a statement describing Canty's accusasaid. "Because we were catching up with have a reason to get rid of us." tions as "unfounded" and the company as them, and they needed to slow us down, so Kenneth Canty "highly disappointed." "When AMC they could have a reason to get rid of us." demonstrated difficulties completing the

The boat-sinking incident occurred contracted work, which would have led to because someone tied off to AMC's rig in a project delays, Skanska offered to reduce way that would not allow the vessel to rise AMC's scope, which it declined," the with the waves, Canty said. statement read. "AMC failed to perform "Everybody's boat would go up and its required obligations, defaulting on its down, and ours wouldn't; it would only go subcontract and leading to its removal down," he explained. "We confronted them from the project." on it, and they were like, 'Ken, boats sink But Canty sees it differently. He views all the time out there. You've just got to be his story as a strain in a larger fabric, as an more careful.'" integral backstory to what he likes to call

This was after the incident—captured "barge-ageddon." Eventually, the engion a Florida Department of Transportation neer said, other people will pick up on this (FDOT) camera—during which a piece of thread as well. equipment needed for an upcoming phase "Somebody is going to eventually tie it, of work was damaged. whether it's my evidence that helps them "We saw that someone from their crew or somebody else, to 'this wasn't just an had come off the tugboat and gotten that accident,'" Canty said. {in}