The decades-long quest to extend Hazard Center Drive under State Route 163 to serve as a connection to and from Fashion Valley Mall is now a reality and the subject of a new lawsuit from the city of San Diego.
The city is suing AECOM, a global infrastructure engineering firm, for negligence and misrepresentation in its design of a concrete channel underneath the Hazard Center Drive connection.
In a non-conformed copy of the lawsuit, obtained by Times of San Diego, attorneys for the city say AECOM errantly designed the Hazard Center Drive Westerly Extension and then allegedly tried to downplay it to city engineers. The faulty design and failure to properly address groundwater intrusion and other issues have resulted in early cracking and groundwater seepage in the concrete slabs and walls.
“After construction was complete, cracking began to appear within the reinforced concrete channel slabs and related structural elements,” reads a portion of the city’s lawsuit…