Dive Brief:

Indiana highway contractor Brooks Construction said it will not comply with the Indiana Department of Transportation’s (INDOT) ultimatum that the company either refund $5.15 million or re-install three miles of crumbling asphalt, according to a statement released by John Brooks, executive vice president of Brooks Construction.

Brooks said INDOT conducted 72 successful tests on the asphalt mix in question during the course of the project, paid his company in full for their work, and even paid bonuses of $18,000 for "an asphalt mix that exceeded requirements."

INDOT is currently testing asphalt samples from 188 recent road projects across the state, and up to $71 million worth of pavement may be defective and could deteriorate ahead of schedule due to flaws in the asphalt mix.

Dive Insight:

Brooks Construction is the first contractor to be held responsible since INDOT begain its investigation into the faulty asphalt on state roads, and INDOT has not yet released any other results that implicate other highway contractors.

INDOT maintains that the fault lies in the asphalt mix that contractors have been using, but critics of INDOT blame the road problems on the recycled asphalt INDOT incorporated into its specifications in 2010.

In response to Brooks' refusal to comply with INDOT’s demand, an INDOT spokesman told WRTV that the department would seek to resolve the issue through Brooks' insurance company.

"As a family-owned business building projects in Indiana for more than 100 years, we are committed to working with INDOT to resolve the state's widespread pavement issues,” Brooks said in his statement. “We will not, however, accept legal responsibility for an industry problem caused by INDOT's specifications and quality assurance program.”