The Greene County Schools board at its Aug. 21 meeting approved a second change order on the general construction of the career academy and new high school. The change order added $49,278 to the cost of the project, but the total project cost, as of Aug. 19, is still $460,000 less than expected.
The board earlier this summer approved a change order that reduced the cost $509,200 due to less over excavation being needed than expected.
The August change order reflected changes in electrical work and drainage at the site. Sam Harding, owner’s representative for the project, explained the changes to electrical costs came from adding a lighted sign in front of the building and adding circuits in the career academy to provide for more outlets. The additional outlets will make it easier for students to charge cell phones. “We wanted to make it more user friendly for the kids. That added cost,” Harding said.
Increases in drainage infrastructure included repair to the county drain tile. The tile under the north retention pond isn’t as deep as the plans showed, and it was broken during excavation. The tile was replaced and located deeper, at the school’s expense. There were two other add-ons in drainage, one from the foundation and one from the roof on the commons area.
Total cost of the project is now $30,763,046.
The change order also adds seven days to the contract time. The date of substantial completion is now Aug.1, 2020, for the career academy, the classroom wing, and the commons area. Completion of the gymnasium is set for Aug. 15, and completion of the auditorium is set for Oct. 1.
Harding provided a construction update with about a dozen photos for the board. Recent work has been on the academic wing. He expected all the precast concrete panel walls would be erected by the end of the week. There’s a wide gap in the south wall that will eventually be windows on both floors. The large windows will be on gathering space on the main floor and the media center on the second floor. “It’ll be really pretty. They’ll (the students) will have a nice view of this nice courtyard that’s going to be landscaped,” Harding said.
The footings are done on the gymnasium. Brick masons are working on interior walls and making “good progress,” Harding said.
The first flooring in the career academy was slated to be poured the next day, Aug. 22.
Harding said that in general, construction is two weeks behind. “Parts they’re further behind, but parts they’re ahead. The overall path is two weeks, but they’re gaining on it putting up the precast,” he said.
Erecting the precast walls for the academic wing took only half the time allotted, he added. Those panels are about 40 feet tall. The gym will be a little taller, about 50 feet.
The precast walls for the auditorium have been a challenge. They’re 65-70 feet tall, and at the first engineered thickness they would be too heavy to haul over the road. The panels were re-engineered to be thinner but keep their strength. Harding said the thinner panels would weigh 100,000 lbs. The crane has a capacity of 110,000 lbs.
“The auditorium is really tall to allow for all the rigging in it. We’ll have a really nice auditorium, with complete theater rigging and a (orchestra) pit. It’s really nice,” Harding said.
