Mt. Lebanon school board wants reasons for high bids
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Mt. Lebanon resident Bill Matthews described Monday night's school board meeting as the "most somber" one he'd ever seen.
School Director Dan Remely told him that he may need to get a thesaurus to elaborate on the mood.
"I'm more than somber," he said.
There was anger, frustration and confusion as school board members tried to figure out why bids came in 16.5 percent higher than expected for their planned $113.2 million high school renovation.
A ground-breaking ceremony for the construction project had been planned for today. Instead, the board voted Monday night to reject the bids for the project, and spent the meeting trying, unsuccessfully, to get answers from their architect and construction manager.
"We are extremely disappointed with the outcome of the bids," board President Josephine Posti said. She told John Taormina of construction management company P.J. Dick and Tom Celli of architecture firm Celli-Flynn Brennan that the board expects them to get the bids in line with estimates at no monetary cost to the district.
But when the board members asked Mr. Celli and Mr. Taormina why the estimates had come in so high, neither professional was able to give a precise explanation.
The district opened the six bids it received for the project last week, and found that while the lowest bid for the asbestos abatement portion of the project was $5.43 million, slightly below the $6.15 million estimate, the lowest bid for the construction portion, at $102 million, was nearly $16 million above the $86.4 million estimate.
The project also includes $20.7 million in estimated soft costs, which are costs other than direct construction costs, such as architectural, engineering, legal and permit fees.
First Published April 28, 2011 6:26 am
