Wait, Is it Morgan or Stadium?

I am getting confused. Change order #GC-03-03 is to Nello Construction for repair of Morgan Drive as required by the Municipality totals $63,148.

In my post of September 17, 2012, Not $30 Million...Not $15 million... where I wrote:

On another note, Peterson has instructed the Board to litigate $63,148 (cost of repaving Morgan Drive) with the Municipality after the project is completed.

I sent this email to Steve Feller on September 18, 2012.

At last night's School Board meeting, a change order was approved for the work done on Morgan Drive. Their solicitor advised the School Board to litigate the amount of $63,148 because they believe it is the fault of the Municipality and Gateway.  Have you responded either verbally or in writing to the District's claim?
Elaine

I promptly received this scorcher from my commissioner.

Ms. Gillen,

I have spoken with numerous officials at the SD today about this rumor, and NONE of them told me that the SD plans to sue the
municipality. Mr. Remely, when discussing the change order, asked
their solicitor how they, if they were to choose to do so, would go
about seeking funds from someone other than the SD to pay for the
re-paved road. The solicitor did not "advise litigation" as you
suggest. He did tell them that such a process was an option. The
change order vote passed, and it was decided that the SD would speak with the other parties (architect, contractor, Muni., etc) to discuss the issue further.

In addition, Mr. Feller and Dr. Steinhauer are in contact often, as
affirmed by Mr. Feller today. At this time, there is no reason to
respond to a false rumor or misinterpretation. Talks are ingoing
bewteen our staffs, as always.

I hope this clarifies any confusion you may have had about the SD's discussion.

Kristen Linfante
Commissioner, Ward 3

A follow up comment on the blog on September 18 at 3:38 PM was approved:

Let's be clear here...anyone can go back to the podcast and make no mistake that both Dan and JoPo were throwing the municipal engineer under the bus.

The idea that now Kristen comes back and says there will be no lawsuit is a little early in the process I think. No doubt the school district will keep all options on the table until this is resolved.

I wonder if the municipality responded to the school board meeting from last week or not. I am sure they heard the comments from Dan and Jo. And I am also sure that if I was them, I would not appreciate one of my employees being thrown to the wolves for doing his job just so the board could blame someone else for its change order.

Here is what was received from Steve Feller when asked for a municipal response. It was obtained through a Right To Know.

Communication from Municipal Engineer RTK Rus Del Ra, the contractor contact seemed a little cranky over Horsman and Stadium Drives.

Either all the information was not granted in the Right To Know Request, there was no response over the school board meeting when Gateway was thrown under the bus, or the change order was listed for the wrong road.  Does anyone out there know anything differently? Kristen, I don't need to get another scorcher from you.

Construction RTKs are starting to arrive

Several RTKs were granted this morning with three more pending.  All you detail guys, architects, builders, engineers...please take a look at the 455 pages of construction meeting minutes.

Also, here are the notes from the Construction Update on September 10, 2012 concerning change orders:

Construction Update Change Order Conversation from 9/10 Notes

Due to complexity of issues they have encountered they have started weekly meetings with Celli-Flynn to make everyone aware of everything that is out there.

#1- $63000 Nello Const due to moving sewer lines due to request of municipality. Dan Remely completely blamed municipal engineer for increased cost. "Municipal Engineer did not do his job when he approved the plan". Posti chimes in blames the municipal engineer for not being familiar with the paving ordinance. "Why did they not have the specs for the pavement itself....who did not catch that?". Marciniak says the trench ended up having to be dug wider and there were some unforseen conditions on subbase and had to go to subgrade which made this a bigger deal. Posti say municipality may have paved the street with subpar subbase that the SD has to replace. Sounds like what Rick said is true...contractor simply had to dig a bigger hole. But both Dan and Posti would rather point the finger at the municipal engineer.

#2- $30,000 to Nello for work required to relocated storm and sewer lines to clear way for new foundations in athletic and science buildings. Shouldn't the drawings have show this?

#3- Fairfield Electric for duct bank incoming feed for DQ Light for Athletic and Science. Add two pipes and duct bank. DQE looked at loads required by science builing required additional feed. Saved $200,000 on bid but came back $60,000 on the other end per Dan's math.

#4 IT department Fairfield electric add $12000 for cable feed from B Building to MDF in F building. Running Cat3 (phone) cable instead of Cat5 (data).
#5 Vrabel Plumbing $17,000 site utlity conflicts with caisons and side beams. Shouldn't the drawings have shown this?

#6 $25,000 credit to use PVC piping instead of copper for pipes 2.5 inches or smaller in non-plenum rated spaces. All PVC will be indoor. Shouldn't the drawings have shown where they could use indoor PVC vs outdoor rated copper?

#7 Nello $11,000 change one retaining wall for frost depth and $5000 to replace unsuitable material with concrete. Board blames the architect.

Ed with Pyrite...south end of science building and north end of building. Seems to be limited to these sites at this time. Another half to pyritic soil change that has yet to be submitted.

Fairfield $272,000 related to 5kV power loss. OSEPA or Builders Insurance Claim so it should not affect the project. Costs through 8/31. Generators taken offline day before meeting. 8/31-9/9 costs not yet submitted. Emergency repair would NOT be part of budget and likely will be covered by insurance as well. At most the District will be on the hook for the deductible per a question by Goldman.

Original change order for dirt may be gone...using rockpile dirt for fill now so costs from a few months back should be greatly reduced.

Something else I found out, OSHA has something to say about repairs to anchor bolts of columns. http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=INTERPRETATIONS&p_id=25178

Section 1926.755(b) requires the following:

(1) Anchor rods (anchor bolts) shall not be repaired, replaced or field-modified without the approval of the project structural engineer of record.
(2) Prior to the erection of a column, the controlling contractor shall provide written notification to the steel erector if there has been any repair, replacement or modification of the anchor rods (anchor bolts) of that column.

According to §1926.752(a)(2), where anchor bolts have been modified, the controlling contractor must inform the erector that the modification has been done in accordance with the requirements under §1926.755(b). Section 1926.755(b) has two requirements: (1) no repair, replacement or modification shall take place without the approval of the project structural engineer of record, and (2) the erector must be informed in writing that there has been a repair, replacement or modification.

 I got a response today for my Right To Know:

Mt. Lebanon School District ("the District") is in receipt of your Public Records Request form dated September 6, 2012, which requests, pursuant to the Right to Know Law ("RTKL"), all daily inspection reports from the project’s testing and inspection firm concerning site work for the high school construction project.

Please be advised that the District requires additional time beyond five business days to respond to your request pursuant to Section 902 of the RTKL.

An extension of time is required because the extent and/or nature of the request preclude a response within the required time period.

The District expects to provide a written response to your request and have any responsive public records available within thirty (30) days of today's date, the records are available at an earlierdate.

Who's to blame?

Remember the "rumor" that Josephine Posti addressed on her Center Court blog? http://jposti.blogspot.com/#!/2012/08/project-on-schedule-and-on-budget.html There has been speculation in the community since discussions first began with the change order for Geofoam. 

So tonight, there will be a discussion about the seven change orders listed on the agenda.  For some reason, the School District is only counting five towards the construction.

We now have a need for retaining walls, Geofoam, pyrite remediation, repairs to utility line conflicts, to name just a few of the change orders needed.

Back in October 2005, architects Burt Hill Kosar Rittelman Associates alerted school board directors of the unstable soil on the site. Mt. Lebanon Pool cost up again; now $6.5 million Knowing this, would Celli Flynn design a building on unstable soil? Is it poor workmanship? Nello built our Public Safety Building. Ask our police and firemen about the condition of the building. Or is it the school board directors? Remember this cost savings worksheet? Potential Project Cost Savings Worksheet Look at what was eliminated. Does the Board have the luxury to cherry pick from a list as to what should be eliminated? Doesn't one change affect others?

Didn't the Board waive contractors' insurance as a cost reduction? If that is the case, then there is no hope for reimbursement from insurance.

School Board Agenda Part 1...Change Order #002

There is too much going on with the August 13 agenda to have it all in one post, so I thought I would break it up into parts. Here's Part 1. Change Order #002

High School Project Change Order #GC-002: RESOLVED, That the Board approves Change Order #GC-002 dated July 24, 2012, to Nello Construction in the amount of $82,360.57 for the installation of Geofoam along the north and east perimeter walls in Building H in substantially the form presented.

We need to look up the amount of the first change order, so that we can keep a running total.

They sure like to take care of themselves...

The agenda for Monday's School Board meeting has some items listed that should be highlighted.
June 18, 2012 School Board Meeting Agenda

(6) Approval of Administrative Salaries: RESOLVED, That the Board approves the 2012-2013 list of annual salary adjustments for administrators effective July 1, 2012, reflecting an average increase of 3.0%.

*(7) Act 93 Administrative Agreement: RESOLVED, That the Board approves the Act 93 Administrative Pay for Performance Plan as presented effective July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2017.

Whereas Upper St. Clair administrative salaries are frozen, here in Mt. Lebanon where students are charged for parking, our administrators get a 3.0% increase.  Nice, huh?
I believe Jan Klein falls under Act 93. I haven't heard the podcast yet, but is this an increase or a decrease?

And the infamous Nello Change Order has entered the picture again.

*(6) High School Project Change Order #GC-001: RESOLVED, That the Board approves Change order GC-001 dated June 7, 2012 to Nello Construction in the amount of $189,306 for the importing of new earth material and changes in waterproofing and grade beam work substantially in the form presented.

*All matters of new business were considered and discussed by the Board at its Discussion Meeting on June 11, 2012, except as noted (*).

Change order tabled. Budget approved.

It appears that there are some legal matters to resolve, so the first change order for the high school renovation was tabled.  It was removed from the agenda.  Details of the change order were mentioned in the post, Now on to Numero Uno Change Order 


The Mt. Lebanon School Board approved the final budget for 2012-13 at the May 21 Regular Board meeting with a unanimous vote of 8-0. Mary Birks was absent. The final budget is $80,584,500 with a millage rate of 27.13 mills—a 0.5 mill increase from last year. The millage increase translates into an additional $100 a year on a home assessed at $200,000. The budget includes cost reductions of approximately $850,000. A list of those reductions is available here.

The podcast is now available at lebocitizens.com.

Now on to Numero Uno Change Order

According to the Construction Manager's Update, there are a few "Construction Challenges To Date" listed.

Existing Utility Interference with Foundations

Rerouting of Fine Arts Theatre Sanitary Line To Outside Science Building Footprint
Storm Line Relocation To Allow Drilled Pier Construction To Continue
Installation Of Water Line North Of Athletic Facility

If we only knew someone connected with the Water Company.  Has anyone ever heard of PA 811 Call Before You Dig, the Pennsylvania One Call System? http://www.pa1call.org/PA811/Public/  They break it.  We pay it?

Requirement to Import Materials

The moisture content of the excavations currently stockpiled on the practice field is too high to properly compact for use as structural fill. We are in the process of working out change order language with Nello Construction.

Remember this? http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-south/architect-says-planned-mt-lebanon-pool-600000-over-budget-588337/ We knew back in 2005 that the soil was wrong based on the soil borings. From the podcast, I got these numbers.

The cost of the new materials for suitable fill is $350,000.
The amount of voluntary credits for the old fill is $125,000.
The net amount of the change order is $225,000.

What is interesting is that $225,000 is approximately what we have spent so far on the Public Safety Building, another Nello work of art completed ten years ago. That was never right from the beginning.

So on Monday evening, the board will be approving its first change order with Nello Construction - you know, the company who was $8 million cheaper or 20% lower than the next bidder.  I believe they were able to save the project from going to referendum.  Pick up the phone, folks.  Make the call.