by Anonym ·
Monday, September 9, 2013
by John Osborn
If the bids submitted by contractors for the Town Hall renovation project are any indication, Harvard taxpayers are likely to be asked this fall to approve additional spending to get the job done.
Bids for ten major components of the project, ranging from masonry to heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, were opened last Thursday in Town Hall by members of the project team, and when the results were tallied, the amount totaled 37 percent more than estimated by the Town Hall Building Committee (THBC) in its most recent budget.
Boston-based Daedelus, which provides cost estimating services for the project, calculated in July that subcontractor costs would total roughly $1.5 million. Thursday’s result puts the total closer to $2.1 million. According to Amy Lombardo of LLB Architects, who oversaw the opening of the bids, subcontractor expenses typically account for 50 to 60 percent of total project costs. If that relationship holds true, once general contractor bids are in, the final amount needed to renovate Town Hall and construct its addition is likely to approach $4.2 million.
When they gathered later that afternoon, THBC members Pete Jackson, Chris Cutler, and Town Administrator Tim Bragan were taken aback by the increase and the speed with which it had occurred. The estimates, conceded Lombardo, were “overly optimistic.” Cutler suggested that contractors were “making up for doing things at cost for the last three years.”
Although the numbers are dramatic, they are not yet final. The town received only a single bid for the two-story elevator planned for the town hall addition, an amount that was twice the project estimate. The committee will rebid the work.
Bids for doing miscellaneous metalwork and providing heating, ventilation, and air conditioning also exceeded project estimates by wide margins, leading team members to wonder if the bid documents for those services had been misunderstood. If phone calls to the bidders prove that to be the case, the town will solicit a second round of bids.
The Town Hall Building Committee is scheduled to update the Selectmen Tuesday evening on the state of the project. The big question on everyone’s mind is: what will bids for general contractor services look like when they’re opened at Town Hall on September 19.