Firewall among reasons for $813K in new costs Committee formed to oversee construction at the high school BY MICHAEL ACKER Staff Writer SAYREVILLE - The $47 million high school renovation project has seen more than $813,000 in change orders, but the project remains within budget, school officials said. The work orders came about after it was learned early last year that firewall and fire suppression work had been left out of the plans, and that the district lacked proper permits from the building department at the start of construction. The board has since attempted to expedite the project, which continued with temporary permits until full permits were issued. School Business Administrator Emidio D'Andrea said the project was delayed two months, but the developer could reconfigure the timetable to get it back on schedule so that all phases will be complete by September 2009. D'Andrea said the $813,000 in work order changes includes $250,000 for the firewall, and roughly $60,000 related to problems with the athletic fields. William A. Morris Jr., project executive for Epic Management Inc., the Piscataway based firm that is managing the high school project, said the athletic field had soft spots that had to be addressed to make the fields more stable. Workers excavated the clay silt material and replaced it, he added. "It's not uncommon," Morris said. "It happens with most projects I have." "We got a fair value for the board and the contractor," Morris added. Project manager Joseph Thomas said work on the high school's D wing, part of phase one of construction, was nearly completed. The wing includes an economics room and a science room on the lower level. The athletic team rooms in the new auxiliary gym were renovated over the summer, Thomas said. The gym is being used to house storage materials. Board of Education member Curtis Clark said he and other school officials toured the construction site recently and were pleased with the results so far. "The science labs are beautiful," Clark said. "The public has to see it." Morris told the board that the site could not immediately be toured due to the potential for hazardous liability issues. "The building department has to give us a certificate of occupancy," Morris said. "When the TCO [temporary certificate of occupancy] is received, a group could certainly be invited." Board of Education President Michael Macagnone described the work done at the school so far as money well spent, adding that the science room is state of the art. "When you go in there, it is really nice," he said. Macagnone described the construction as an "inherently risky project," since un- foreseen expenses are common in the development process. Morris said there is approximately $500,000 remaining for contingencies. He added that the project is 40 percent complete. At the latest Board of Education meeting, held Dec. 18, the board voted unanimously to adopt the superintendent's report, which includes the formation of a construction oversight committee. Macagnone, board Vice President Patrick Lembo and board member Kevin Ciak will sit on the committee. Macagnone said establishing the committee is part of the board's effort to give the project its full attention and to learn lessons from the project's first phase that could be used in the second and third phases. "This project is the biggest in scope and dollar amount this district has ever seen," Macagnone said. Macagnone told the Suburban that the frequency of the change orders is a concern for the board and is one of the rationales for the formation of the committee. However, he noted that change orders are not uncommon with such large-scale projects. "It is a concern to the board, because we are only one-third into the project, and we wanted to make sure that we do not run out of reserve money," he said. With phase one complete, officials want to make sure they keep their "finger on the pulse of the construction project," Macagnone said. "I make weekly visits to the project," he said. "I see a tremendous amount of progress. As a taxpayer myself, I am very happy to see that we are educating our students in a state-of-the-art facility." D'Andrea told the Suburban that the district is currently within the approved $47 million cost amount in the referendum. The $813,000 total for change orders, reported in November, has gone up slightly in the past month, he added. D'Andrea said he expects the D Wing to be occupied this month. Parking spaces in the area of the wing are partially complete, he added. The new auxiliary gym is complete and the district is in the process of reworking the construction schedule to ensure they meet the timeline for completion, D'Andrea said. "We're trying get back on schedule," he said. "We are currently working on the schedule for completion by September 2009."