Asbestos abatement project challenged

A competitor of an asbestos abatement contractor who won a $34.1 million contract to remove asbestos from Midtown Plaza in Rochester, New York, is challenging the contract by claiming that the winning bidder lacks sufficient experience to do the job. LVI Environmental Services has filed suit in a New York state court claiming that Cambria Contracting, Inc. overstated its track record in its bid for the asbestos removal project. The asbestos removal is the first step toward the demolition of the Rochester building. The abatement project, which is supposed to begin in the next few weeks, will be the largest single such project of its kind in upstate New York, and will involve the removal of 5 million square feet of asbestos-containing materials over 14 months. LVI says in court papers that Cambria does not meet the bid's requirements that the winning contractor had to have removed at least 800,000 square feet of asbestos materials each year for the past five years.