Elementary School Building Project Bid Comes in Under Budget
Architect's rendering of the new Fort River Elementary School. Aerial view from Southeast. Photo: amherstma.gov
According to BidDocs, the bid for the Fort River Elementary School project has come in under budget by around $3 million. Work was estimated to cost $76,548,643 and the lowest bid from CTA Construction Managers of Waltham, MA came in at $73,475,000. The two other bids received also beat the estimate: $75.0 million from J&J Contractors of North Billerica, MA and $75.6 million from Fontaine Bros. of Springfield, MA. The next step is for the bids to be reviewed and a decision made by the town on whether to accept.
The total project cost will include soft costs (for items such as furnishings, fees, and contingencies) as well as any separately bid items. The Amherst Town Council authorized $92,492,295 of borrowing in April 2023 and a town-wide debt exclusion override vote in May 2023 passed easily with over 80% of more than 4000 voters in favor.
The elementary school building committee meets September 20, at 8:30 a.m. via Zoom (the link to the meeting is https://amherstma.zoom.us/j/83600583792) with the only agenda item being discussion of the bidding results. Additional reporting will follow.
Elementary school project vs. Jones Library Trustees’ demolition/rehabilitation/expansion project: Compare and contrast.
Yes, it’s the difference between an honest and open process where every decision was scrutinized and a rubber-stamping no questions asked—the one questioner who understood budgeting having moved. Jones library meetings, until recently un-recorded, brief, late and uninformative useless minutes… We will all pay sooner AND later
Rather than spending these school project savings on other pending projects, please consider investing in more extensive PV canopies over the remaining paved areas at the new Norwottuck (formerly Fort River) Elementary School….
I am blown away! I just watched the Building Committee zoom meeting and it’s amazing to me that nobody mentioned performing their due diligence on the contractor with the low bid.
CTA has had some well documented problems throughout the commonwealth. They recently received a failing DCAMM evaluation in the town of Foxborough MA and had a horrible project in Douglas MA with DiNisco Design (your Architect) where the bonding company Travelers had to pay out during the project several times.
I guess burying your head in the sand is a better way to go!
Good luck Amherst!
Editor’s note: The writer provided a folder of project evaluations supporting his above claims for projects in which CTA was the primary contractor.
Editor’s note: The writer provided of folder of project evaluations supporting his above claims for projects in which CTA was the primary contractor.
Will those evaluations be made public, perhaps by publication in The Indy?
Have those evaluations been shared (by Joe Saracino or any other means) with the elementary school building committee?
One hopes they would take such evaluations into account before deciding whether to accept the bid.
On a project of this size pre-qualification of the bidders would have been required by law. What does our pre-qualification committee have to say about the problematic projects? Should the problematic projects mentioned have been included in the prequalification submittals and weren’t?
The worst contractors have the best lawyers but the law is on the side of public entities. If there is a problem with the low bidder because of problems that just came to light, contact the Mass. Attorney General’s Office for expert advice.
The contractor reviews at DCAMM are not the only source of information you are allowed to use. The Amherst school project will be built next to an active school. Does the low bidder have a good record with OSHA? The OSHA safety records are available.
The poor projects of the low bidder (assuming the characterization of the projects is correct, I have not reviewed anything) would be a good reason to reject the low. Running the second low through the same level of scrutiny would be important.
Rejecting all bids is allowed. Not what anyone wants to do, especially with an under estimate bid on the table but a bad contractor (no idea whether the contactor in question is good or bad) can easily get that much back in excessive change orders on this large a project. And some.
Ask pointy questions. Be fair with everyone and afraid of no one. If you wind up facing a law firm so big they have offices in HELSINKI you will still win because the law is on the side of building committees.