Bid to Woodruff Construction LLC
The expansion and remodeling project at Greene County Medical Center moved to a new stage Wednesday morning with the awarding of a contract to general contractor Woodruff Construction LLC with offices in Fort Dodge, Ames and Iowa City. The medical center project will be handled by the Fort Dodge office.
Seven bids were submitted. Woodruff had the low bid of $18,260,000. According to architect Hal Henderson of HGA, all bids came in slightly higher than budget. Caleb Stockton of Stockton Facility Management Services, which has assisted in the planning process, outlined several options within the requested bids and highlighted those things taken out of the proposal to get the project within budget.
Total cost of the project is $22.5 million. The additional $4.25 million includes fixtures, furniture and equipment, professional costs such as architecture and project planning, and other non-construction costs.
“This is a process we’ve been working on for the last two years… This is a culmination of two year’s worth of work to get us to this point and lead us into another two years on the project,” medical center CEO Carl Behne said at the March 12 meeting.
Medical center trustee Kim Bates questioned whether Woodruff’s low bid could be the result of using subcontractors not up to the same standard as in other bids. Subcontractors are not named in a bid proposal in a public bidding process, Stockton said.
“Talking to Woodruff, with their reputation, they realize that they’re as good as their subcontractors, and they need good subcontractors who will perform well for them. If they don’t, they’re going to have their own challenges along the way,” Henderson explained.
“They had a better bid coverage. They worked at it a little harder and went out and got more bids than some of the other generals did,” Henderson said. “We typically see that if somebody really wants the project, they’ll work harder at getting bids from a larger radius or they have subs they’re accustomed to working with and they give them a good bid.”
Jason Rechkemmer will be the lead for Woodruff Construction. Henderson said he has worked with Rechkemmer previously and that he is “very professional.” Henderson has no reservations about awarding the contract to Woodruff.
Stockton said it is possible that construction can start yet in March. Behne has set April 3 as a tentative date for a groundbreaking ceremony, but he added that it will be only ceremonial. Actual work will likely not begin that day.
Information about the expansion is available on the medical center website, which is linked from GreeneCountyNewsOnline. Also, a link to the “Investing in Tomorrow’s Care” video is posted elsewhere in this GreeneCountyNewsOnline update.
