Unexpected costs cramp new high school budget

Current cost estimates for the new Whitefish High School have the project sitting above budget. A clerical error in the budgeting process and unexpected costs in the remodel of the gymnasium have bumped expenses $300,000 over budget.

Bayard Dominick, the school district’s consultant for the project, gave the school board Feb. 12 a budget update.

“We’re a little over our budgets in a few areas, but we soon hope to be in the realm of good news once the bid packages come in,” Dominick said. “I’m hopeful with the potential for some savings [through bids] and also with the potential for private fundraising efforts, we’re going to deliver a 21 Century school.”

The cost estimates budget for the total project will continue to change as designs are refined and subcontractors submit bids, Dominick explained. The budget for the school is tight, he said, because they’re trying to maximize the potential for the school.

The high school project is a mix of new construction and renovation of existing space at a cost of $19 million.

A clerical error caused the cost of sidewalks, at $138,000, to be eliminated from estimates. The error has since been corrected.

“Do we have a measure in place now so that a line item being omitted wouldn’t happen again?” trustee Heather Vrentas asked.

Dominick explained that the error was simply an oversight by the general contractor, Langlas & Associates, and as the project continues through the refinement process, any such errors will be flushed out.

Asbestos abatement for the A-wing roof is expected to add $73,000 to expenses, while unanticipated costs in the gym work have added $51,500 to the project.

Another additional cost was added when the size of the school was increased by 3,000 square feet from the original concept to include larger classrooms. The architect and engineering fees increased by $29,580 for the added work. Also the creation of bid documents for the project were $35,389 more because the project was broken into three bid packages.

Dominick said he negotiated with the architect DLR Group and asked they lower some of the additional fees because their original design of the building was too far above budget and thus caused more time during the value engineering portion when the design was refined.

“Their original design was too expensive,” he said. “They share some of the responsibility associated with that so they agreed to cut their proposed fees.”

Dominick said adding the extra 3,000 square feet will be worth the additional cost.

“It will mean bigger classrooms that allow for more flexibility for teachers, for block scheduling and more kids together for longer periods of time,” he said. “But it pushed the building a little bit bigger and created some challenges.”

The school board Feb. 12 approved payment for the additional services from the architect.

Bids for Bid Package No. 1 were due to the district last week, which includes the remodel of the gymnasium. Early work on the remodel of the gym begins at the end of the month with full-scale work starting in March.

Cost estimates for work on the gym are $915,000. As of Monday, subcontractor bids were still being evaluated, but were expected to come in below previous cost estimates.

Work on the gym includes replacing the floor, bleachers and scoreboards, as well as construction of a mezzanine and weight room, new paint and demolition of the press box.

Replacement of the gym floor could be a challenge and is expected to cost $43,000 more than the original estimate.

“The gym floor isn’t flat,” Dominick said. “We have about an inch difference from the edge of the floor to the center. We’ll have to wait until we take all the wood off to see exactly how unlevel the concrete is underneath. We will likely have to do some grinding of the concrete to make it level, but worst case scenario if we have large heaving will be to cut sections and pour new concrete.”

Crews recently took up a portion of the floor underneath the bleachers and discovered that the floor wasn’t constructed in a standard manner. Typically a gym floor would be nailed to two layers of plywood on the concrete. However, the current floor sits on metal rails which are nailed into the concrete.

“We had hoped to save a bunch of the floor — especially the big Bulldog in the middle,” he said. “But because of the way it’s fastened to the floor it’s impossible to take it up in big chunks. We’d have to take it apart in pieces and then we’d have a jigsaw puzzle to put it back together. However, a group from the Hall of Fame wants to use as much of the floor as possible and volunteers are going to salvage as much as we can.”

The wood on the bleachers can be taken out and will be placed in storage. Volunteers are looking at ways to reincorporate that wood back into the new school.

Two other unanticipated costs have come up in the gym remodel. Removal of the fixed bleachers to create the mezzanine level will require treatment of the concrete floor at a cost of $1,000. Railings for the mezzanine will also add $7,500 to the cost estimates.

Dominick anticipates that most bid savings will come during the second of two bid packages. The gym remodel is on a tight schedule with completion set for the end of June and that timeline limits what subcontractors can do to enter reduced bids, which limits the ability for larger savings in that package, Dominick noted.

“The economy isn’t booming yet in the Flathead and it seems we’re going to have a very competitive bidding market,” he said.

The cost estimate for Bid Package No. 2 is $2.16 million. Architects are currently finalizing documents for the bid package, which will be sent out with bids due to the district on March 11. Work in that phase includes the excavation of the new site, foundation work and the structural steel package to frame the building. Site work is expected to begin at the end of March.

Bid package No. 3, at about $10.7 million, is the bulk of the project that includes the new construction and remodel of B-wing. Bids for the final package are due to the school district on May 21 and work will be moving forward at the end of May. Substantial completion of the school is set for June 2014.

“(The general contractor) Langlas & Associates will be doing more detail cost estimates in advance of the bids,” Dominick said. “When we start proceeding with the packages we will be confident that we have the funding in place to complete the job.”