Engineering firm Weston & Sampson’s $9.8 million estimate to replace three Department of Public Works buildings and renovate a fourth was called into question by the Permanent Building Committee at its Oct. 18 meeting. There were few answers. As a result, the committee appointed two of its members to a subcommittee that will meet with Weston & Sampson to discuss the estimate’s line items in detail.
A 2021 estimate prepared by CBI Consulting, based on its facility analysis and space needs assessment, came to $5.3 million. It included replacing the office building, the mechanic’s service garage, and the pole barn, and renovating the storage garage. At that time, the Capital Planning and Investment Committee voted against funding the design for fiscal 2023 because the cost was too high. The town voted to fund the design for fiscal 2024 at Spring Town Meeting.
The town hired Weston & Sampson to do the design, and the firm prepared a new estimate early in September. Engineer Mike Richard told the committee the $9.8 million estimate was based on CBI’s and adjusted to match the costs his firm is seeing for competitive public bidding projects, as well as for additional information his firm’s engineers have learned about the buildings.
When PBC members saw the new estimate at their Sept. 30 meeting, they agreed that the replacement of the pole barn could be bid as a “deduct alternate,” meaning it could be cut from the project if bids came in over budget. They asked Weston & Sampson for a number that didn’t include the pole barn, and the firm presented that number at the Oct. 18 meeting. The estimate without the pole barn totaled about $8.2 million.
The construction cost for the pole barn was estimated to be $1.1 million, with design costs of nearly $280,000. Member Steve Moeser questioned the high design cost for such a simple structure, which would have no heat or running water. Richard said the cost was based on the price of a pre-engineered metal building. Moeser responded that the building supplier would do the pre-engineering, but Richard said his firm would still have to do some design work so that contractors could bid accurately on the project.
