NEW ALBANY, IN (WAVE) – Work stopped on the Sherman Minton bridge Thursday after protestors crossed construction boundaries complaining not enough minorities and local workers were on the job.
The Louisville company responsible for that work, Hall Contracting, is calling those complaints ridiculous.
It was a move that workers on the Sherman Minton Bridge weren't expecting. Hall Contracting Vice President Tom Roberts described what happened, "The project manager looked up and there were 10 people walking down the bridge deck."
Without hard hats, members of the African American Think Tank walked right into the dangerous construction site and police had to be called.
Roberts explained, "We had a delivery truck that could not get in and basically it shut our production down."
That's exactly what the Reverend Gerome Sutton was hoping for and in this bridge battle, he's throwing down the gauntlet.
"We're going to slow down the work, they won't get that $6 million," Sutton said of Hall Contracting.
But Tom Roberts the vice president of Hall Contracting doesn't take threats lightly.
"We have a bridge we're trying to re-open, 80,000 cars each day with Louisville and New Albany residents and everyone's affected by this, so you have 10 people, a very small minority causing this delay that benefits nobody."
Sutton says he's upset that more minority and local workers weren't hired for the project. He says it could have given them the experience that could lead to jobs in the future for Louisville's next two bridge projects.
Sutton said, "Hire some poor whites and some poor blacks from our community where the bridge is located four blocks away."
Roberts says the claims are baseless.
"We are meeting or exceeding our contractual goals," Roberts said. He tells WAVE 3 News, he submits a certified payroll report every week to INDOT showing the required number of minority and female workers. He vows that the Reverend's protests won't delay any more work and says it will be done by the March 1 deadline.
"We're going to stay out in the cold tomorrow (Friday)," Sutton said, "We're going to slow down this work until they come to the table."
Roberts responded, "I will have police on each end of my project tomorrow (Friday) ensuring that no one enters my work site.
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