BALTIMORE (AP) – A Maine construction company Thursday blamed the state for deteriorated concrete on the Chesapeake Bay bridge, saying it repeatedly warned state officials that the paving requirements specified in the contract could cause cracks to appear.

At a news conference at the Baltimore headquarters of Cianbro Construction Co., Mike Hart, a Cianbro vice president, said his company was following orders from the state when crews removed concrete from the bridge deck and poured replacement concrete.

“Cianbro has performed all the work per the specifications of the contract under the direction and approval of the Maryland Transportation Authority,” Hart said.

“We repeatedly communicated our concerns, yet no action was taken by the MdTA,” he said. “The MdTa did not pursue our recommendations.”

The state will spend more than $7 million to tear up and repave defective concrete.

A report released last week by the state Department of Transportation said a combination of rushed work and inadequate planning was the cause of the bungled repairs. It did not say who is to blame.

Robert Flanagan, state transportation secretary, said he will rely on guidance from the state attorney general’s office on determining who is at fault.

“They (Cianbro) are entitled to have a press conference and talk about it and give us their version of what happened, but at the end of the day, we have to rely upon the independent guidance from the attorney general,” Flanagan said.

“My focus up to now has been getting the repairs back on track,” he said.

Repairs began in 2002, and, because of the need to replace cracked concrete, work will not be completed by spring of 2006 as planned.

The report commissioned by the state said the long, thin decking on the westbound span of the bridge presented a more complex repair job than state officials, engineers and contractors expected.

The concrete decking is only 6.5 inches thick on much of the bridge, at least an inch thinner than most long-span bridges. The unusual structure requires “robust and meticulous” methods of repaving – methods that weren’t followed, said panel chairman Thomas Deen, a Stevensville engineer who is a retired executive director of Transportation Research Board, a division of the National Research Council of the National Academies of Science and Engineering.

The report identified several reasons why the new concrete on the westbound span failed, including:

• The underlying surface of the bridge wasn’t adequately prepared for the new concrete.

• The concrete wasn’t mixed properly.

• An epoxy bonding agent was misused.

Hart criticized the report for implying that Cianbro’ work methods contributed to the deterioration of the concrete.

Cianbro is based in Pittsfield, Maine.