In an effort to keep the Town Hall renovation project on schedule, the Town Hall-Hildreth House Construction Committee (THHHCC, or “T3HCC,” as its members have taken to calling it) approved several measures this week to speed up the process of approving change orders. The committee will allow its “red team”—three members who participate in the weekly on-site construction meeting—to approve change orders with a cost of less than $10,000. In addition, the committee will “pre-approve” change orders that are still in negotiation, but only if their cost estimate does not increase.
Change orders
Change orders are created to take care of issues that are not in the original scope of work agreed to by the town, the contractor, and the architect. For example, the current list of change orders includes replacing the sagging beam over the boiler room, a situation that was not known to exist until construction began. Assistant Town Administrator Marie Sobalvarro told the committee that haggling by the architect, contractor, and project manager over cost and time can sometimes go on for weeks.
The problem
The THHHCC meets in the hour prior to the construction meeting, and members often have no idea what change orders may be ready for approval that week. In the construction meeting that follows, if a change order is ready for approval, it must wait at least a week for the next THHHCC meeting. Several members have repeatedly brought up the possibility of holding the THHHCC meeting after the construction meeting instead of before, but red team members said it would be impossible for them to attend meetings until mid-morning. Moving the construction meeting to earlier in the morning has not been a popular option due to the lengthy commutes of some attendees.
The solution
The committee members voted unanimously to allow two members of the red team to make working decisions on behalf of the committee on change orders with a cost of less than $10,000, and they clarified that those two members could include Town Administrator Tim Bragan, even though he is not a voting member of the THHHCC. They also went through a list of 16 outstanding change orders and pre-approved them, on the condition that the cost to the town does not go any higher and that any credits due the town do not go any lower.
