School Building Project Expected to be Nearly $5 Million Under Budget

The Elementary School Building Committee met on September 20, 2024 to discuss the bids received the day before. All three general contractor bids came in under budget with the low bidder, CTA Construction of Waltham, MA, $3 million below the estimated cost. Chair and District 1 Town Councilor Cathy Schoen noted that this means that the project has the green light to move forward. 

Kseniya Slavsky from the Owner’s Project Manger (OPM) team at Anser Advisory presented additional information (see table below) that shows total construction costs nearly $5 million below the funding agreements once other separate bids are taken into account. The early site package bid earlier this year also came in under budget and some purchases had already been made. 

The bid must next be reviewed to ensure that it complies with requirements of minority and women-owned business participation. This is expected to take approximately one week at which point contracts can be drawn up and signed. 

The Massachusetts School Building Authority, who will be funding a large part of the project, will ask the town what it would like to do with these savings. The Town Manager will make this decision. Contingencies for the project for soft costs (for things like fees and services) and construction total over $4.6 million. If the savings were added to the contingency funds, there would be $9.4 million available although Slavsky noted that the intention is not to spend this money. 

Margaret Wood from Anser shared that CTA Construction was founded in 2000 and has completed a substantial body of public work, including many school projects. Rick Rice from DiNisco reported that CTA had reached out after the bid results were released and were eager to get started, noting that CTA has been aggressively trying to establish a foothold in western Massachusetts. He added that DiNisco has worked with them on about a half dozen other school projects. Tim Cooper from DiNisco has also had the experience of working with CTA as a school building project committee member in his hometown of Swampscott where they recently completed a larger project on a “tight site” that also included geothermal wells. He offered, “They are capable of the task at hand.”

A contract is expected to be executed before the end of September with the general contractors starting on site by the first week of October. Construction is anticipated to be completed in time for a school opening in the fall of 2026.