Price cutting still ongoing in County building projects
Work continues to find savings for two coming county building projects running over their expected costs, and the top priority is to first find those items in the new 911 operations center.
County manager Matt Denton said those savings – from downgrading the scale of the grounding for the building to reducing the number of can lights being used inside in the ceilings – should bring down the cost of construction per square foot.
He described bids coming in several hundred thousand dollars over what was expected from companies, and said the county continues its second look into where savings can be found.
“We’ve brought the drawings to several people, and are talking with
the architects and some of the bidders about why we’re seeing these costs,” Denton said.
The new 911 operations center – which will be part of the Emergency Management building off Highway 278 and the Highway 27 bypass next door to several other county facilities – is more than 2,500 square feet of space meant to house operators and dispatchers for Polk County’s 911.
A new building will also house new equipment, upgrades needed to keep up with changes in technology over the past decade.
Commissioners approved a plan that was expected to cost $375,000 in May 2015 – not including the equipment – out of four options presented to the board as a whole.
After Allen Bell Architects were awarded the bid to complete drawings and bids went out to contractors, Denton told Public Safety committee members during their January session and in previous sessions costs came in well over what they’d provided for in the budget.
“It’s safe to say we’ve made some changes to the mechanical and electrical engineering drawings that will hopefully reduce the cost of the project, but not decrease the quality of construction,” he said.
Some of those savings have been found in such moves as changing around the footprint of the building to allow for a single power connection between the two facilities, changes in rendudant cooling for the mechanical and electrical rooms, and taking a look at grounding standards to keep equipment safe from lightning strikes and power surges.
Denton said the grounding designed for the building – based on Motorola standards – were much greater than needed and incurred a portion of the increase in expected cost.
Additional cost sav- ings were also found in a requirement the contractor would have in providing a back-up generator for 911 to use in case power was lost during the facility’s future move.
Instead, the county will seek help from Georgia Power directly on providing a generator when the time comes, allowing for another reduction in overall spending.
Denton informed the committee that three bidders – Patriot Construction, J. H. Benefield and Fowler Construction – will get a chance to revise their bids once the county finds areas where the savings will come.
They were chosen based on four criteria – price, stability of the company, experience in similar projects and their ability to work within the county’s timetable for completion.
Denton later told Public Works committee members the same due diligence to find savings within the Public Works facility project was also ongoing, but down on the list of importance compared to the dire need for the new 911 operations center.
The grading of bids also needs to be completed for the new six bay metal facility Denton said, but that the process was on the forefront of his mind.
He did say that some of the items in the bids left some room for ambiguity with contractors, who might have called for more money in some areas than necessary.
Though the potential for savings is available through the use of subcontractors, Denton admitted, his greatest concern is that if future problems are found several parties will points at others for the cause, and won’t guarantee needed fixes.
Commissioner Ray Barber, head of the committee, called for work to be finished as soon as possible, and to try and bring costs down.
The county expected costs to run between $130 to $140 per square foot on both facilities, but found bids to be more in lie with the $280 a square foot.
The full board of commissioners were expected to continue discussions on Monday night during their work session on the bidding process and the steps being taken to reduce costs.