A workforce that largely refused to wear masks or get COVID vaccines helped drive delays and cost overruns on a $1 billion-plus project at the Chickamauga Dam, according to documents stemming from a dispute between the federal government and a California-based company.
“Due to prevailing local viewpoints, Shimmick’s efforts to implement testing, quarantine and isolation, social distancing and masking protocols were met with great resistance among most of the staff and craftsmen,” Shimmick Construction, a contractor for the project, said in a complaint filed in March 2024.
The Chattanooga Times Free Press recently obtained the complaint through an open records request.
On Friday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced it was terminating its contract with Shimmick in an effort to “protect taxpayer dollars” on the more than 20-year-old project to replace a chamber, known as a lock, that raises and lowers ships traversing the Tennessee River at the dam.