Cost rises significantly for paving at Peters Township schools
Paving at two Peters Township schools will cost significantly more than the contract awarded for the project.
Because of a change order totaling $441,613, the school board voted at its Sept. 18 meeting to pay for additional hours for the services of M.B. Kohne LLC as owner’s representative for the work at Pleasant Valley and McMurray elementary schools.
The board approved the paving change order Sept. 11, effectively adding almost 60 percent to the overall price. The contract with T.A. Robinson Asphalt Paving of Bridgeville, awarded in March, was for $740,175. Combined with the change orders, the paving projects will cost at least $1.18 million.
“From what we understand, the main issue is the subbase underneath the original pavement,” Brad Rau, district business manager, said about the grading materials placed above the soil for support. “When they took off the original pavement, the subbase just wasn’t acceptable. It was failing all the proof rolls” – using heavy equipment to check for the adequacy of compaction – “and it required the undercutting of basically the whole parking lot.”
Regarding the change order, he told the board:
“It’s pretty straightforward, even though the amount’s pretty large, and there’s really not much choice we had in the matter once we took off that pavement.”
Board member Rebecca Bowman agreed.
“It is both impossible and pointless to speculate at this point as to why the nature of the previous installation is what it was,” she said. “It was in extremely poor condition, and had we used it as it was when it was revealed, we would have been doing this again in a maximum of three years.”
Even with the additional expenses, board member Ronald Dunleavy pointed out that the project still is costing less than what originally was budgeted.
The additional cost for firm principal and project manager Maureen Kohne to act on the district’s behalf is not to exceed $1,625. She previously was contracted as owner’s representative for the McMurray Elementary renovation project.
The school board also voted Sept. 18 to accept the final schematic design for the new high school project, as presented at the previous week’s buildings and grounds committee meeting by architects Hayes Design Group and Weber Murphy Fox Inc. The latest design, which takes into account input that has been gathered from a wide variety of stakeholders during a yearlong process, sizes the building at 298,000 square feet.
The committee’s next meeting to address the project, which is budgeted at a maximum of $90 million, is scheduled for Oct. 9, to address exterior finishes and aesthetics for the building.