Marion stakeholders are determined to build the town’s new Department of Public Works operations center on the $4,500,000 budget approved by voters last year at Town Meeting, and they intend to do it by internally handling as many tasks as legal and possible and bypassing a general contractor.
Some tasks, lead architect Will Saltonstall told the Marion DPW Building Committee during Monday’s meeting at the Town House, can fall into the “self-perform” category, “rather than bundling this whole package and sending it out to GAC.”
After budget numbers came back from project estimators, Ken Motta of Field Engineering produced a site plan to further examine costs at Benson Brook.
Saltonstall suggested that the salt-shed assembly can fall into the self-perform category, along with other parts of the infrastructure, including the sewer line that will run from the facility to its connection to town sewer. That can be taken care of ahead of facility construction.
“Everything on the project-cost side of things,” said Saltonstall, will go out to general bid, but “there are quiet costs that you don’t have to add in there. … We can still get to our budget. … Think Rochester facility.”
Still on the table are three distinct construction strategies: 1. a preengineered metal frame on a concrete foundation, such as the Rochester DPW facility; 2. a stick frame wood with wood truss roof on a concrete foundation, such as the Sandwich DPW (believed to cost $145,000 more); and 3. a preengineered wood frame pole barn on concrete tubes, such as a Morton brand construction.
As of November 2021, total project cost for the new Marion DPW was estimated at $4,399,024. It has since jumped to $7,938,140 primarily due to change from a two-building design (operations center and vehicle maintenance/storage) to all in one. The salt shed remains a separate construction.
While the consolidation into one building is meant to eliminate redundancies in construction and infrastructure, the redesign also resulted in a plan to close the sides of what was going to be a preengineered metal vehicle-storage building, doubling the size of that structure and resulting in a $2,046,933 increase.
The cost of a general contractor has doubled since November 2021 from $462,627 to $934,947.04.
A do-it-yourself approach cannot be applied to operations/vehicle-storage construction and salt-shed assembly, but it can reduce sitework from $1,207,985 (January 2023) to $400,000 (less than the November 2021 budget figure of $684,818) and it can reduce the cost of a general contractor to $509,053.95.
Saltonstall’s six-part “potential construction strategy” will lean heavily on cooperation from various subcontractors and good fortune with supply chains.
Randy Parker, the Select Board’s representative to the committee, told the members he will approach Upper Cape Tech about the school’s interest in using the project for student experience.
Saltonstall recently met with a Morton representative, noting that the company known for its preengineered buildings is outside of the committee’s cost estimator.
Parker said that Morton “does a lot of things on their own” and likes their insulation product. “All the Morton buildings today are capable of taking solar … earlier in this conversation they were not.” Parker also noted that Morton guarantees its paint for 25 years.
Construction still must go through a public bidding process, noted Saltonstall.
After much in the way of careful discussion regarding the many moving parts in a partly do-it-yourself strategy, the committee discussed next steps.
Saltonstall told the committee he will meet offline with the DPW crew and specifically with Ken Motta of Field Engineering to draw from his expertise on site costs and gain a better understanding of critical time factors and the schedule. He will also seek feedback from Morton buildings on construction costs and engineering.
Morton offers buildings in standard sizes that can save the town money by tweaking its design dimensions to Morton’s existing standards.
Saltonstall anticipates another public meeting within a few weeks, but the committee needs more information before setting a date.
Marion DPW Building Committee
By Mick Colageo