Post by title1parent on Apr 22, 2009 5:26:11 GMT -5
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/1537213,naperville-D203-projects-under-budget-na042109.article
D203 projects coming in cheaper than expected
April 22, 2009
By TIM WALDORF twaldorf@scn1.com
With work on Naperville Central High School's $87 million renovation and expansion project set to start in a month, current estimates indicate Naperville School District 203's $115 million facilities improvement plan is coming in under budget.
"With all of this talk about Naperville Central, people may not realize it is just over a month away when we will start the construction," Tim Bickert, a senior project manager with IHC Construction Companies, told District 203's board Monday.
The project will start this summer with the renovation of Central's track and the installation of artificial turf on its football field. Construction crews will also add a bus turn-around at the end of Porter Avenue that will serve as a new student drop-off point while closing the existing parking lot to through traffic from that street.
Also, the asbestos abatement will occur throughout the majority of existing building over the summer.
"The day after school is out, we start ripping things up," said Craig Williams, District 203's chief information officer.
For the most part, this means floor tiles will be removed, and floors throughout the school will be left with a "slightly stained bare concrete look," Bickert said.
These projects are expected to be complete by the time students return to school in the fall.
The three-story south addition is a different story. It will fill in the existing courtyard that separates the school from the stadium with classes that will encircle the school's new cafeteria and atrium.
Bickert said that, when students return to school in August, they will see in this area "some structural steel in the air, and pre-cast planks sitting on it, and cranes on the site.
"You can imagine that this will all be to the north of the current football field and track, filling in every inch of space," he said.
Work on that addition will continue throughout next school year and into the summer of 2010.
These are just the first in a series of extensive renovations and additions set to be completed at Central by late 2011 or early 2012.
"(We are) always shooting for getting done earlier and costing less," Bickert said.
District 203 has already found significant savings on the projects voters approved a $43 million tax hike to help fund last year.
About 90 percent of the $5.2 million of improvements slated for Naperville North High School are bid, with those projects coming in almost $1 million over budget.
But the $7.3 million expansion and renovation project that is well under way at Mill Street is coming in $639,443 less than expected, and the district's $11 million early childhood center is $211,467 under. Both of those projects are 100 percent bid.
And a budget update provided to the board Monday showed that Central's estimated completion cost is $1.8 million less than the district's original estimate of $87 million.
So combined, these projects are $1.68 million under budget, and the district still has $3 million of contingency funding built into its plan.
Dave Zager, District 203's assistant superintendent for finance, noted that much of the work to be done at Central is remodeling, which means those contingency funds may be needed. If that $3 million is used in its entirety, then the entire $115 million plan would probably end up costing $800,000 more than expected, he said.
"It is our hope that that is (an) unlikely scenario, and, indeed, the bids that we've been getting as we go out to bid our construction have proven to be up to 10 percent below those estimates," Zager said. "So I think this is very favorable, and it indicates that after we go out to bid with Naperville Central, we should be coming in very favorable to our overall referendum budget."
D203 projects coming in cheaper than expected
April 22, 2009
By TIM WALDORF twaldorf@scn1.com
With work on Naperville Central High School's $87 million renovation and expansion project set to start in a month, current estimates indicate Naperville School District 203's $115 million facilities improvement plan is coming in under budget.
"With all of this talk about Naperville Central, people may not realize it is just over a month away when we will start the construction," Tim Bickert, a senior project manager with IHC Construction Companies, told District 203's board Monday.
The project will start this summer with the renovation of Central's track and the installation of artificial turf on its football field. Construction crews will also add a bus turn-around at the end of Porter Avenue that will serve as a new student drop-off point while closing the existing parking lot to through traffic from that street.
Also, the asbestos abatement will occur throughout the majority of existing building over the summer.
"The day after school is out, we start ripping things up," said Craig Williams, District 203's chief information officer.
For the most part, this means floor tiles will be removed, and floors throughout the school will be left with a "slightly stained bare concrete look," Bickert said.
These projects are expected to be complete by the time students return to school in the fall.
The three-story south addition is a different story. It will fill in the existing courtyard that separates the school from the stadium with classes that will encircle the school's new cafeteria and atrium.
Bickert said that, when students return to school in August, they will see in this area "some structural steel in the air, and pre-cast planks sitting on it, and cranes on the site.
"You can imagine that this will all be to the north of the current football field and track, filling in every inch of space," he said.
Work on that addition will continue throughout next school year and into the summer of 2010.
These are just the first in a series of extensive renovations and additions set to be completed at Central by late 2011 or early 2012.
"(We are) always shooting for getting done earlier and costing less," Bickert said.
District 203 has already found significant savings on the projects voters approved a $43 million tax hike to help fund last year.
About 90 percent of the $5.2 million of improvements slated for Naperville North High School are bid, with those projects coming in almost $1 million over budget.
But the $7.3 million expansion and renovation project that is well under way at Mill Street is coming in $639,443 less than expected, and the district's $11 million early childhood center is $211,467 under. Both of those projects are 100 percent bid.
And a budget update provided to the board Monday showed that Central's estimated completion cost is $1.8 million less than the district's original estimate of $87 million.
So combined, these projects are $1.68 million under budget, and the district still has $3 million of contingency funding built into its plan.
Dave Zager, District 203's assistant superintendent for finance, noted that much of the work to be done at Central is remodeling, which means those contingency funds may be needed. If that $3 million is used in its entirety, then the entire $115 million plan would probably end up costing $800,000 more than expected, he said.
"It is our hope that that is (an) unlikely scenario, and, indeed, the bids that we've been getting as we go out to bid our construction have proven to be up to 10 percent below those estimates," Zager said. "So I think this is very favorable, and it indicates that after we go out to bid with Naperville Central, we should be coming in very favorable to our overall referendum budget."