I doubt that the School District has this, but maybe the Muncipality does.
http://www.meanscostworks.com/promotion/costworksoverview.aspx?mailDrop=IA01&pCode=9102
Someone just sent me this link. CostWorks has a free 7 day trial. How about anyone in the construction business - anyone have access to this? Maybe someone can run a quick cost estimate of the high school project and can get in touch with the School Board. This may tell us if the bids are in line or we were duped by the architect and/or construction manager.
10 comments:
Yeah man ! The project is 485,0000 SF, about 50% new / 50% renovation at at combined average of $178/SF = $ 86,330,000 = P.J. Dick estimate or BUDGET....EXCEPT THAT IT DIDN'T COME OUT THAT WAY DID IT !
The mean bid of $109,000,000 comes out to a project average $224.74/SF....which confirms that this project was a gold-plated Taj Mahal. The proof is in the construction documents (drawings, specifications and AIA amended contract provisions), plus a close review of all the "RFI's" all the way up to the bid date....not the *CYA* explanation proffered by P.J.Dick, who laid all the blame on the bidders and the marketplace.
Bill Lewis
$224.74/SF??? On www.lebocitizens.com Facts page,
Dirk Taylor had estimated it to be $215 or 30% higher than the high end should be - A YEAR AGO! Maybe it is a platinum Taj Mahal!
I'm assuming had the board or the administration had access to this software they could have been double checking the PJDick estimates all along, rather than being blindsided.
It would also be a useful tool on any future construction/remodeling projects the district might undertake.
How does the maintenance department estimate project cost for the district now before asking the board to allow them to put it out to bid?
Dick Saunders
I was able to find the price of this software. $649.95.
2010 RS Means Costworks
Sounds like a bargain! A year ago, "It was moved by Remely and seconded by Cappucci that the Board awards the Email Archiving Bid to Ideal Integrations in the amount of $49,682 as the lowest responsible bidder meeting specifications. (Copy in official minutes.)"
So Mr. Remely and Mrs. Cappucci, the same people who gave us the R2D2 presentation, moved and seconded purchasing Right To Know software at a tune of $49,682, but there is software out there to do construction estimates for only $650? Oh that is great.
Grrr. Blogger keeps messing up the link. Here it is again.
www.constructionbook.com/2010-rs-means-costworks-design-professional-package-65540/rs-means-estimating/?source=cbegs&cid=CBSEFGL
First, in response to Dick Saunders question : I don't know the precise method the District maintenance department employs in developing cost estimates, but if you review bid awards over the years, the low bids are almost always below the cost estimates of the facilities/maintenance department, sometimes by as much as 20%....this unusual pattern strongly suggests cost estimate-padding doesn't it ? The SB has been too busy congratulating the staff to notice this, Ben.
Regarding the P.J.Dick cost estimates : do any of you recall the cost comparison chart the CM presented more than a year ago which remains on the District website, I believe, that compares their SF cost estimates for the HS project with the SF costs for 2 or 3 other recent area school projects ? The CM explained that the SF cost premiums for our Taj Mahal were attributable entirely to site preparation (the major excess cost component) and asbestos abatement, and that pure construction costs alone were comparable to those of other districts. Alleged "Value Engineering", supposedly to have taken place (but obviously had not in view of the fact that Celli produced a list of 75 cost saving possibilities within 5 days of bid openings), did not openly link the exceptional site preparation cost to the entirely new and exceedingly generous athletic building on the other side of Horsman Drive. Of course, the athletic building was a definite MDT *given* and therefore untouchable even though (a) not a *given* in the fixed list of 15 design criteria, (b) not a *given* requirement as designed, sited and costed for educational *programatic needs* (eg. phys-ed no longer required for grades 11 & 12...remember ?), nor (c) a *given* need for a 21st. century education. It remains the principal sacred cow of the Taj Mahal.
Bill Lewis
James Fraasch did it again! He was so prophetic! Back in 2008, he wrote about the construction estimating software.
http://lebosbupdates.blogspot.com/2008/08/high-school-project-costs.html
Imagine that! If the Board paid more attention to the CAC and James Fraasch, we would not be in the position that we are in today.
Elaine
Bill,
I don't think this is exactly what you're looking for, but it might help to put the current plan's square-foot cost into perspective. In January, 2010, I prepared a chart showing how our “least-expensive” renovation estimate ranked against comparable projects at the time. (I used the PDE's 2008 actual values for reference because they would have been the most recent to be incorporated into the estimation models that were being used for our estimates.) Even the plan that was widely represented as a Baid-Aid – and rejected on those grounds – is more expensive than almost every other comparable project.
The project we chose instead is even more expensive.
Cheers,
Tom
Tom,
I remember it well ! It was one of the classic *heads up* notices to the SB that something was amiss that needed to be looked into and challenged...but, of course, it wasn't. Just like the *heads up* from the CDC, Dirk Taylor, James Fraasch, Bill Matthews and yourself among the long list of very knowledgable members of the public whose opinions the District dismissed or rejected. But, of course, the wants and wishes of the favored special interests were incorporated; and, thats a leading contributing factor as to what got us to where we are today.
The "least expensive...Band Aid" at the time was Alternate 1, the Renovation Only design that retained Building C, but no *improvements* to Fine Arts or Athletics. When it was dropped from consideration a year earlier, the P.J. Dick total project cost estimate for Alternate 1 was $103.2 million, with a construction cost only estimate of $92.1 million....at that same point in time, the *chosen* Taj Mahal we are now saddled with had a total project cost estimate of $138.8 million, with a construction cost estimate of...GET THIS...$122.2 million ! And the SB bought, unquestioned, the MDT fantasy that by bid time the construction cost would be at a much, much lowered "value engineered" figure of only $86.3 million ? And the 6 actual bids came in a range of $102 - $123 million, with a mean bid at $109 million...
Bill Lewis
Tom, your chart appears to have a circular reference built-in.
David Huston
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