SOUTH PORTLAND — On
Monday morning, South Portland Finance Director Greg L’Heureux sat in his
office and described the reaction to bids opened the previous Thursday for the
long-awaited high school renovation project.
“We
all just sat there like this,” he said, letting his jaw fall open to its
natural extent, then stretching it just a bit wider still, for emphasis.
The
shocker was that the lowest of four bids rang in at $43.24 million, while the
school department has budgeted just $39.26 million for construction from a
$41.5 million bond approved by voters. The higher-than-expected price tag made
necessary an emergency meeting of the South Portland High School Building
Committee, which on Monday began a review of the project to see where costs can
be cut.
That
work will take place during March, culminating in votes at a pair of building
committee meetings, scheduled for March 20-21. Initial discussion centered on
the future of Beal Gym, and whether the final project will be able to
accomplish the goals set out in the original renovation and expansion plan.
But
first, the committee had to get past the sticker shock, which officials said
was a result of the project’s long time frame and complexity, as well as the
high number of large construction projects now under way in Maine.
“It’s
been a really rough weekend” said Superintendent Suzanne Godin at Monday’s
meeting.
“I
know the emotions I felt Thursday at the bid opening,” said committee Chairman
Ralph Baxter Jr. “You could say it was a tragedy. Yes, I was frustrated. I had
to chill out, relax and catch my breath.
“I’ve
since decided this isn’t a crisis,” said Baxter. “This isn’t a tragedy. This is
a problem. And all of us volunteered for this committee to be problem solvers.
Over the next two or three weeks, we are going to have to keep at it. We’re
going to fix it. We’re going to go forward.”
And
while most on the committee voiced support for the project, and confidence the
new goal can be met, some expressed concern for what the final result might
look like.
“I
have no doubt that it will be a usable school, and that it’ll be an improvement
over what we’ve got,” said committee member George Jones, a city resident who
teaches history in Scarborough. “My main worry now is that we are going to end
up with some utilitarian, Soviet-style building with no aesthetics to it.”
“It
will be on budget and it will still be a great school,” assured Dan Cecil, the project
architect-of-record, whose firm, Portland-based Harriman Associates, is
collecting $2.55 million to design, engineer and oversee the project.
In
November 2010, South Portland voters approved borrowing up to $41.5 million to
tear down and replace most of the high school, while retaining Beal Gym and the
original 1952 section at the corner of Highland Avenue and Mountain View Road.
Beal
Gym has since risen as a particular bugaboo for the project. An original
proposal was to build a new gym and retain the 1954 icon as a practice gym.
That idea was shot down by voters, who wanted it kept as a focal point of the
new school. However, according to Harriman’s senior project manager, Dan
Robbins, the gym ended up being “in much, much worse shape than we knew before
the [2010] referendum.”
Cecil
said the total cost for fixing Beal’s structural issues may run to “more than
six figures.” That prompted school board member Jeffrey Selser to suggest it
might be cheaper to simply tear down the gym, despite its sentimental value.
“I
think it’s important as we look at this, as we now make some very difficult
decisions about what cuts we are going to make, that ultimately we are
designing a building for the students,” he said. “It’s not for us.
“A
small but very vocal part of the community may have ended up costing us a
significant amount of money to preserve some people’s memories of a bygone
era,” said Selser. “It’s important to honor the past, but we are building this
school for the future.”
Meanwhile,
City Councilor Gerard Jalbert suggested that “low-hanging fruit” could be
plucked by passing on energy-efficient Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design certification, saving $125,000, while Godin declared herself
“uncomfortable” with that direction in cost-cutting.
The
total project, to take place through the next three years, is pegged at $47.26
million. However, the school department has $2.7 million sitting in a reserve
account for secondary school facilities, $600,000 in usable budget surpluses,
$678,350 in energy performance credits, and $1.78 million from an
approved-but-as-yet-unused 2010 capital improvement bond for security and
electrical systems at the high school.
That
reduced the project to the $41.5 million bond approved by voters by covering most
of the $3.33 million in fees and services (the largest chuck going to Harriman)
and part of the $4.67 million in administrative costs, which includes a $1.67
million contingency fund.
That
leaves $39.26 million for actual construction, rehabilitation of retained
structures and site development. PC Construction of South Burlington, Vt., was
the low bidder, at $43.24 million.
“It
seems like a hard number, but it’s doable,” said Cecil, who recommended that
the building committee not attempt to re-bid the project.
“[PC
Construction’s] bid is valid,” he wrote in a Feb. 27 memo to committee members.
“They are an excellent contractor with a proven track record on large projects.
We believe that the gap between bid and budget can be closed through good faith
negotiations and reductions in scope.”
Formerly
known as Pizzagalli Construction, PC is based in South Burlington, but
maintains an office in Portland, led by South Portland resident Joe Picoraro.
The company worked with Harriman on the $27 million renovation to Scarborough
High School in 2003-04, drawing some complaints from the public and town
councilors there over post-project mold, ceiling leaks and foundation cracks.
Bruce Brown, a former clerk of the works at the project, described the work
site as an "insane asylum,” while an independent engineering report
released in September 2005 found enough issues to urge that the town purchase a
long-term insurance policy as a safeguard against potential future problems
with the building.
Godin,
Cecil and others representing the school met with PC Construction principals
“for more than eight hours” on Monday to review the bid and scope of work.
Cecil
blamed much of the bid miss on PC hedging against future fuel and materials
costs, given present uncertainty in the Middle East and the long, 33-month
construction cycle. Cecil also said that the way in which the project is being
phased to accommodate students, who will continue to use the school, forced the
contractors to set up and break down work sites multiple times during the life
of the project. He also urged the city to find some climate-controlled building
within its borders that can be used for material storage, particularly drywall.
However,
Cecil said, the single most important reason for the higher-than-expected bid
is one that might at first seem counter intuitive. The conventional wisdom
since the national recession hit in 2008 is that contractors are hungry for
work, and will bid low to secure it.
However,
Cecil said, the opposite is now true. Ticking off a host of current or
scheduled projects, including a new $285 million hospital in Augusta, a $25
million overhaul to the Cumberland County Civic Center, a new $26 million
corporate headquarters for Idexx in Westbrook, $25 million project at Bates College
and the $39 million replacement of the Wentworth Intermediate School in
Scarborough.
“So,
there’s actually quite a bit of work in Maine right now,” said Cecil. “One
thing we heard is that fewer subcontractors bid than we would have expected.
One example is a big drywall company, in business for 25 years, who didn’t bid
at all because he’s completely booked up with the hospital job.
“That
hospital, in particular, seems to be gobbling up a lot of contractors,” said
Cecil, adding that many contractors prefer such work to the South Portland High
School project, which promises to be longer, more complicated and “not at all
cookie-cutter.”
“So,
I guess the lesson here is that the market has bottomed out and the market is
on the rise,” said Cecil.
The
school board was scheduled to hold a special meeting Wednesday night, after the
Current deadline. However, the board was expected to grant Godin authority to
negotiate with PC Construction moving forward. Following informational meetings
on March 8 and 15, the building committee will meet to make cuts in the project
on March 20 and 21.
“They
will be taking a look at this to determine where they need to make some
adjustments, based on this [bid] number, to bring it in to a place where it
would meet our bonding capacity,” said Godin.
There
were five “add-ons” for which PC also submitted quotes. The building committee
would have chosen from among them had the base bid come in under the $39.26
million ceiling. Although dollars seem scant now, Godin said it’s too soon to
give up on these extras – which include an equipment storage building,
courtyard landscaping, a greenhouse, kitchen equipment and an irrigation system
for the athletic fields. That’s because the building committee might find ways
to save by choosing less costly finishing materials than those previously
selected for the new school.
“We
can’t say without looking at it all,” said Godin.
A CLOSER LOOK
Construction bids opened Feb. 23 for the South Portland High School renovation project, for which the school department had budgeted $39.26 million from a maximum approved bond of $41.5 million:
JCN Construction, Manchester, N.H.: $46,674,000
Harvey Construction, Bedford, N.H.: $46,569,000
Eckman Construction, Bedford, N.H.; $45,998,000
PC Construction, Portland: $43,244,000
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