After a U.S. district judge dismissed an initial version, a group of Tallahassee-based companies and their owner have filed a revised lawsuit over the possibility that they could be prevented from working on federally funded projects after being affiliated with an engineering firm that designed a collapsed Florida International University pedestrian bridge.
The revised lawsuit, filed last week in federal court in Tallahassee, alleges that the Federal Highway Administration has violated a law known as the Administrative Procedure Act by not making a timely decision about whether the companies would be prevented from working on federally funded projects.
The lawsuit was initially filed in March by nine companies and their owner, Linda Figg. The companies are affiliated with FIGG Bridge Engineers, Inc., which designed the Miami-Dade County pedestrian bridge that collapsed in 2018, crushing cars and killing five motorists and one construction worker.
FIGG Bridge Engineers was blocked in 2021 from working on federally funded projects until 2029. The revised lawsuit said that in September 2023, the federal agency notified Figg and the affiliated companies of a proposal to keep them off federally funded projects, or what is known as “debarment.”
Figg and the affiliated companies filed a response Nov. 13, and the lawsuit said the federal agency was required to make a decision within 45 days.
“Plaintiffs are being adversely affected by defendants’ failure to act or unreasonable delay in announcing a decision regarding debarment of plaintiffs,” the revised lawsuit said. Judge Allen Winsor on July 10 dismissed the initial version of the case but left open the possibility the plaintiffs could revise it.
