Times Union18%
Airport contractor sues county authority over Albany International renovation 22%
By Patrick Tine21%
7/30/2026, 1:01:10 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 24 faulty reasoning types, including Self-Serving Bias, Confirmation Bias, and Post Hoc (False Cause), with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 23% saturation with 224 hits. Analysis detected 1,346 faulty-reasoning hits from 974 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 32% and a BS Rank of 22% (18,788 of 23,847 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 78.80% of the article peer group.
ALBANY — The contractor hired to oversee the $100 million renovation of Albany International Airport is suing the Albany County Airport Authority, alleging major design deficiencies that delayed completion of the project by two years and led to millions of dollars in cost overruns.
The lawsuit, filed this week by MLB Construction Services LLC in state Supreme Court in Albany, seeks at least $12 million in damages, plus interest, from the airport authority.
The firm alleges that the plans and documents provided by the authority and prepared by the engineering firm CHA Consulting contained “errors, omissions, gaps, and internal inconsistencies that would foreseeably cause delays and increased costs during construction.”
The airport authority disputed the allegations.
“Throughout the project, the authority has worked to address challenges, maintain progress and provide MLB with opportunities to meet its contractual obligations, including adjustments to the scope and sequencing of certain work,” airport authority spokesman Matthew Hunter said in a statement Thursday.
“The authority remains open to voluntary, nonbinding mediation and will respond to the claims through the appropriate legal process.”
The lawsuit comes three weeks after MLB filed a legal summons against the airport authority and more than a year after the contractor says it first sought mediation to resolve the dispute without litigation during the costly, high-profile project.
The complaint alleges the authority encouraged MLB to meet an April 24, 2026, deadline to complete work on a section of the terminal lobby by dangling the prospect of mediation and discussions about a “long-overdue schedule extension and compensation adjustment.”
After the firm met the deadline and the airport publicized the partial completion of the new departure hall, the lawsuit says the authority “did not make good on its promises.”
Responding to that specific allegation, Hunter said, “Phasing has been an essential part of this project from the beginning because the terminal must remain open around the clock.
As MLB continued to fall behind schedule, it was necessary for the authority to adjust the project’s scope and sequencing to help maintain progress.”
‘Cascading disruptions’
The 24-page complaint describes a project beset by dysfunction, with cost overruns amounting to more than $8,000 per working day.
It alleges the problems began almost as soon as construction started, when MLB “encountered pervasive errors, omissions, conflicts and gaps” in contract documents provided by the airport authority, leading to “cascading disruptions.”
According to the lawsuit, MLB identified errors in plans for the terminal’s structural steel that required its steel fabricator to redetail the entire building.
In structural engineering, detailing is the process of creating detailed plans for steel components such as columns, beams and trusses.
The lawsuit also says work was delayed when MLB had to carry out the unanticipated reconstruction of a parking garage elevator and address problems with the terminal’s foundation.
MLB, which built the pedestrian bridge and rotunda in 1999 that are part of the current renovation, alleges the airport authority and its design team ultimately issued approximately 2,050 design revisions, clarifications and changes to address deficiencies uncovered during construction.
“These were not garden-variety design disruptions and delays that a contractor might expect on a large construction project,” the lawsuit said.
The complaint alleges that nearly 1,000 design revisions over the course of the project contributed to a 2½-year delay and more than $2.5 million in costs borne by subcontractors.
Although the airport authority is the only named defendant, MLB says it performed work for both the authority and Turner Construction, the firm the airport hired to oversee and coordinate the project.
MLB says it submitted 12 written claims “to ACAA and/or Turner seeking additional contract time and compensation for delays and impacts caused by design deficiencies, changed conditions, and other matters outside MLB’s control.”
The airport authority declined to make CEO Peter Stuto or any other official available for an interview to discuss the lawsuit.
MLB, through the public relations firm Behan Communications, also declined to make anyone available for an interview.
In an interview with the Times Union, Albany County Executive Daniel P.
McCoy said he was aware of the growing dispute between MLB and the airport authority but was not following it closely.
The airport authority is a separate legal entity created by the county, and McCoy said he receives monthly briefings on its operations from policy staff in his office.
“I get information in dribs and drabs,” McCoy said.
Any decision on whether to settle the lawsuit would be up to the airport board and Stuto.
“The county has nothing to do with it,” McCoy said.
He said "90%" of the renovation work should be done by December, with final touches completed by April.
The legal entanglement is taking place against the backdrop of what airport officials have described as a nationwide search to find a permanent leader for Albany International.
John Raphael-Pichardo, an authority board member helping to lead the search, told the Times Union earlier this month that candidates for the position had narrowed, though he declined to say how many may still be in the running.
McCoy, who had once actively sought the top job for himself during the well-documented upheaval in 2024 that led to the ouster of longtime CEO Phil Calderone, suggested Thursday that a candidate had already been selected.
“It’s the worst-kept secret,” McCoy said, without naming the person.
Pressed on the identity of the apparent pick, McCoy declined to provide a name and said he was upset that he even knew who it was because of how it would appear to the public.
The airport authority and McCoy’s office previously told the Times Union that he did not apply for the CEO position.
“I shouldn’t know any of this,” he said of the search and the candidate who has apparently been chosen.
“I’m going to be accused of playing politics.”
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