Change order for middle school project will cost $884,312

Increase tied to removal of soil, cost for additional gravel

Posted 6/20/18

The first change order submitted for the Barrington Middle School construction project is estimated to cost nearly $900,000.

School officials briefly discussed the change order during a school …

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Change order for middle school project will cost $884,312

Increase tied to removal of soil, cost for additional gravel

Posted

The first change order submitted for the Barrington Middle School construction project is estimated to cost nearly $900,000.

School officials briefly discussed the change order during a school committee meeting last week, sharing the estimate of $884,312 for "non-conforming fill." 

In a follow-up interview, Barrington Schools Director of Administration and Finance Doug Fiore offered more details about the change order. 

Mr. Fiore said the construction plan had always called for the removal of soil from the site that was not suitable to "hold the magnitude" of the new building. 

But more recently, construction officials identified that the specific amount of fill that was needed to be removed and replaced with a suitable fill was about twice the original estimate of 8,000 cubic yards.

Removing double the amount of unsuitable fill drove up the change order, as did the cost for extra fill needed to replace the removed material. 

Project officials included an estimate of $65 per cubic yard of suitable structural fill. Mr. Fiore said officials were able to instead use gravel for fill and negotiated a lower price of $39.06 per cubic yard.

Barrington school officials said the change order, which still needs to be approved by the school building committee and school committee, will not delay the construction timeline. The project is scheduled to be completed by Aug. 2019.

Mr. Fiore added that the bid offered by Brait Builders Corporation was lower than officials had anticipated. 

Brait was the lowest of four companies to bid for the project, at $51,275,000. The next low bid was from KBE/Bentley, which offered a bid of $52,125,000. The third lowest bid was from Bacon Construction Company for $53,197,000.

The only company to exceed the construction bid estimate of $54,200,000 set by the Barrington School Building Committee was HV Collins Company's bid of $56,230,000.

"There's an allowance for change orders like this," added Mr. Fiore. 

The local school official said there are consultants at the work site who are verifying the amount of fill being removed from the site.

Barrington taxpayers approved a $68.4 million bond for the middle school construction project.

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