The Oregon Military Department, which has purview over the project, fired McCarthy Building Cos., the nation's largest builder, on July 19, going so far as to have police escort the company's employees and subcontractors off the site without their computers, tools and equipment.

The OMD claims the St. Louis-based company, among other things, did adequately brace some smaller HVAC ducting and plumbing piping as required by the contract and, when asked to do so at no extra charge, declined, thus prompting its firing.

McCarthy, which promptly filed the aforementioned lawsuit, says the work was not part of the original contract. In addition to claiming wrongful termination, the lawsuit claims that OMD "breached the contract" by firing them unnecessarily "and intentionally interfered … throughout the course of the project" and "constantly made the project atmosphere so acrimonious that (McCarthy) could not keep employees on the project."