Vail Four Seasons construction dispute comes to an end

The Vail region in Colorado witnessed a staggering building boom. As with other building booms, construction disputes are inevitable. The Four Seasons in Vail was one of several resorts that ended up in court.

After almost a year, this week lawyers will stop dancing the Four Seasons fandango.

The most expensive and extensive case in Eagle County history is expected to end Friday. Like most civil disputes, this one’s about money — lots and lots of money. It’s a story about great big numbers and a great big hotel, although the hotel itself — The Four Seasons Vail — has nothing to do with the lawsuits related to its construction.

Layton Construction says Barclays Capital owes it around $30 million. Barclays, the international financial firm, counter-sued for about five times Layton’s $27 million claim.

Via vaildaily.com

Could a rigorous Quality Assurance Observation (QAO) program have prevented this? While the Four Seasons dispute was clearly regarding issues of payment, and therefore typically outside the scope of QAO services, one of the benefits of the QAO process is aligning owners, designers, contractors, and subcontractors.

Some construction disputes can’t be prevented. For everything else, there’s QAO.