Highway contractor paying late penalty

For failure to finish the work by the end of an extended contract period, the general contractor for Sheep Farm Road is paying a late penalty, according to Ryan Miller, resident construction engineer for the DOT. Miller said the penalties assessed the US Group of Columbia are liquidated damages the amount of which, Miller says, he cannot disclose. But the damages are assessed daily. The multi-million dollar project to five-lane Sheep Farm Road and extend it to highway 28 at Tanglewood has been under construction for nearly two and a half years. Late last year it entered the home stretch of the original contract, but Miller today conceded  several touches remain, including turning on the new traffic lights at a pair of Sheep Farm Road intersections.