frustrated motorists already call it orange barrel boulevard and as mark douglas reveals tonight, the barrels are not going anywhere until summer. >> reporter: back in november, dina asked us to find out what the heck was going on with ulmerton road. >> look at this. are you kidding me? >> reporter: a road she calls orange barrel boulevard. >> it is like watching paint dry. >> reporter: the dot promised completion by january. but that didn't happen. >> the contractor has voluntary default and walked away from the job. >> reporter: that's right. $19million into a $23 million contract, they just quit. from two other projects and left all of their orange barrels behind. >> gee, there's a shocker. never saw anybody working anyway. >> reporter: the contractor served initial notice it was defaulting on the contract and abandoning the job, but prince has already been hired in its place. thank goodness. they brought more cones. no one at prince construction could tell us how long it will take to pick up the pieces of the project and the dot can only guess. >> they are doing some night work. o

. >> orange barrel boulevard need to go away. who is getting fired? somebody could get fired for something like this. >> reporter: now you can't fire the guys who quit the job. at the very least, chris larson says they cannot bid on any more state road contracts. >> so mark, any assurances that this new contractor is going to be any better than the old contractor? >> reporter: we spent some time looking into that. prince has hundreds of millions of dollars of road projects in florida. it is based in tampa. the other company, the parent company at least, is based in columbia. and its financial troubles spread from here to panama so there is some confidence in that, but a lot of the motorists calling us about this have created a facebook page just to share their gripes about orange barrel boulevard. boy will they have something to talk about tonight. >> it will be nice when the nickname goes away. thank you douglas. >>> country's first presidential primary of 2016 is about to be in the history books. candidates spent the day selling themselves to voter

and it sure didn't end well here on orange barrel boulevard, stacie. >> all right. million dollar question, what happens now, mark? >> reporter: now as we said last night, there's another contractor on the job, mobilizing now and hired by the insurance company to finish something like $4 million worth of work. the taxpayers won't have to pay d.o.t. but the job was supposed to be finished last month and now it's looking like summertime, maybe the fall if we're lucky before it's done. so a lot more headaches for the motorists who have to travel here on orange barrel boulevard in city ovular bow. >> mark douglas live tonight, thank you. >>> a shoplifting incident in lakeland could turn into a homicide investigation. store but after employees caught and stopped him, he stopped breathing. while the medical examiner has not ruled the death a homicide, police have to treat it as such. >> the medical examiner is saying that the injuries are not consistent with a health related issue. we're not going into detail in what they observed in the autopsy. >> the story employees ha

hired that contractor in the first place to work on the road some motorists now call orange barrel boulevard. >> reporter: after four years of construction, this is what connell vs u.s.a. has left behind, motorists face this busy stretch of ulmerton road. last night frustrated motorist dede told us heads should roll. >> somebody should get fired. >> clearly she was frustrated but essentially the contractor is off the job now. the job. the company abran donned -- abandoned it three months ago. the company still brags about the ulmerton road project and two other d.o.t. jobs it has also abandoned due to a lack of resources. the d.o.t. insists that when conalvisa pre qualified as a bidder four years ago it passed the financial sniff test. >> all of the guidelines were followed. >> reporter: the d.o.t. says they had a proven track record back then and has submitted company financial statements to show viability every year since then. the bottom line is when they submitted the $23 million low bid back in 2011, this job was >> you don't have any choice? >> we use the low bid method for constructio

for drivers going west, turn right on the boulevard and if you want to leave edgewater going west, exit at west 45th street and construction crews and orange barrels are a common site on this portion of the shoreway and that is part of the lakefront project looking to connect the neighborhood. some places in place like the speed reduction at 50 miles an hour to 35 miles an hour and there is some good news that these ramps will be open by mid- may just in time to enjoy the beach. back to you. >>> there is not a lot i can do like this at all periods and there will be some kind of former contract. >> and right now, an akron family is searching for answers after a loved one vanished. johnson disappeared a month ago. the navy veteran was last seen akron and anyone with information about his whereabouts should call akron police. >>> and police are investigating the drowning death of a six-year-old cleveland boy. the medical examinered anthony kelly was produced dead. the circumstances surrounding his drown having not been released. >>> and bath township fire department warning bus thin ice this morning after a dog chris cue -- dog rescue. a lab and pug