Contractor loses €26M claim in highway dispute

Contractor Bertelsen & Garpestad demanded approximately €26 million in additional compensation, but Molde District Court rejected all claims following a three-week trial this fall.

The contractor argued that the ground contained quick clay and moraine they weren’t informed about, making the project more demanding than expected. The plan was to use the masses for road construction, but instead they had to be hauled away and replaced. The roads administration had already paid out €10.5 million in extra compensation for the deviating ground conditions.

The court concluded, however, that the contractor’s own operational setup caused the problems, and that there were no errors in the tender documents’ information about ground conditions. The court also ruled that Bertelsen & Garpestad notified about the claims too late.

Bertelsen & Garpestad must now pay liquidated damages exceeding €1.6 million for delays, plus €570,000 in legal costs to the state. The company must also cover costs for expert lay judges.

Undecided about a possible appeal

The contractor’s attorney Grete Gullhaug called the ruling extremely disappointing and argues that a public client wouldn’t have paid such large additional amounts if the problems were caused by the contractor itself, she told NRK. She is undecided about a possible appeal.

Project manager Hallgeir Brudeseth at the Norwegian Public Roads Administration is very satisfied and doesn’t believe the opposing party will appeal the “very crushing ruling,” he told NRK. He said that through the trial they saw they had an even stronger case than they had initially thought.

The road opened in summer 2024 after delays. There is a four-week appeal deadline and the ruling is not yet legally binding.