A top official with the Barrington School Building Committee said he was not shocked by an errant estimate that will likely result in an $884,312 cost increase for the middle school construction project.

Patrick Guida, a co-chairman of the committee, said the group was always aware that the site conditions of the new middle school building might present some challenges. More specifically, people have questioned whether the location of the new school — near the corner of Middle Highway and Lincoln Avenue — was too wet to build on. 

The ground conditions reportedly played a role in the $884,312 change order — the initial construction estimate called for the removal of 8,000 cubic yards of soil from the site that was not suitable to "hold the magnitude" of the new building. But officials recently 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. Removing approximately 16,000 cubic yards of unsuitable fill drove up the change order, as did the cost for extra fill needed to replace the removed material. 

"I'm mildly disappointed that we didn't have a better estimate with the amount of material that had to be removed," said Mr. Guida. "I'm not shocked, just disappointed."

Mr. Guida could not recall which company had been responsible for determining the estimate for how much soil needed to be removed.

Mr. Guida also referenced an error by the project architect, Kaestle Boos Associates. Mr. Guida said that when creating the bid document, KBA officials forgot to include a "line item" for the structural fill that would be used to replace the insufficient fill.

"It was clearly something that needed to be done," Mr. Guida said, adding that the bid document did include a "line item" for removing the 8,000 cubic yards of insufficient fill and the per unit cost of structural fill replacement. 

"Kaestle Boos has acknowledged in a public meeting that it was their mistake. They have accepted responsibility for it," said Mr. Guida.

"I still feel that despite this, KBA is doing a good job," added Mr. Guida. "I feel good about this project, and I think the community should feel good."

Mr. Guida said officials built in "plenty of room" with contingencies in the contract, which can compensate for unexpected cost increases. He also said that Brait Builders Corporation's bid for the project came in at $51,275,000, which was nearly $3 million less than the construction bid estimate set by the school building committee. 

"Based on what we anticipated the cost might be, and what we know has actually transpired, the number we initially came up with appears to be pretty close (to the current cost) and under what we asked the community to pay for," said Mr. Guida. 

"If that bid had included the cost of replacing the organic material (unsuitable fill) and had it come in at $1 million higher, it still would have been under what we estimated."

Taxpayers approved a $68.4 million bond to pay for the new middle school.