CAPITAL PROJECT UPDATE
South Seneca CSD is busy along with Hunt Architects and Bovis Construction Management in the final design and planning stages before submitting plans to the State Education Department (SED) in mid-December.
Since the schematic design plans were approved by the voters back in March, there have been numerous meetings amongst user groups to determine the detailed needs of newly constructed or renovated spaces. These spaces include the gymnasium, auditoriums, music rooms, science labs and bus garage facility. At the same time, the engineers have been preparing the plans for updating our internal mechanical, HVAC and electrical systems where required. There has also been much time spent on fine tuning technology upgrades including servers, computer labs, SmartBoards and wireless solutions.
As in most projects, the estimates based on this detail work have come back higher than originally projected which has necessitated revising some scope items that can be scaled back, done more efficiently in-house or saved for a future project. Some of these items will also be placed on a bid alternate list, meaning that if bids come in low enough, the Board can decide to have these items completed. Although there are a number of these smaller items, there are only two major changes to the original schematic design that the board of education has also approved. These two items along with a brief explanation are listed below:
Bus Storage Canopy – After further studying the practicality of such a facility, it was recommended to and approved by the board to remove the bus storage canopy from this project. It was determined that the limited amount of protection from the weather versus the cost of the structure wasn’t of good value. The buses will be stored outside, similar to the majority of school districts, with engine block heaters for each bus.
Revise Scope of Roof Repair – Although there will be some roof repair work in this project, it has been determined that the amount of money allocated to this part of the project in schematic design was in excess of actual needs. This is due to both the years remaining on our roof warranties and to the expected roof lives remaining beyond the warranty periods.
Although there are some revisions to the original plan, the majority of scope items are as originally projected. As a reminder this work will include:
Needless to say, this is a very large project with many details and affected areas and therefore we have been working diligently to assure that what will be built or renovated makes sense for the district today and into the future.
Listed below is the current timeline of events leading up to construction:
Mid-December Project submitted to SED
Late April SED approval
Mid-May Bidding Process
July 2008 Construction Begins
Further updates will follow in the newsletter as well as a link on our webpage which will be up and running soon. In the meantime, if you have any questions please contact Stuart Mattey at 869-9636 ext. 1431