Portsmouth Middle School builder is hired
Contract is signed; work to 'ramp up'
PORTSMOUTH — Gilbane Building Company is on board.
The construction management company hand-picked by the Joint Building Committee for the Portsmouth Middle School overhaul had its contract approved by the JBC on Wednesday night. Assistant City Attorney Suzanne Woodland said the contract calls for the company to receive 1.1 percent of the $37.5 million cost for the three different aspects of the project.
Those three elements are the Portsmouth Middle School building project itself, the synthetic turf at Portsmouth High School, and the creation of a new softball field at the site of the old Wentworth School. A guaranteed maximum price for each portion of the project will be brought to the JBC for approval as the process rolls along, Woodland said. Any cost overruns above the guaranteed maximum price would be absorbed by Gilbane.
Gilbane will also command pre-construction service fees, Woodland said.
"The figure for that has been capped (at) $60,000, which we thought was a very competitive price," she said.
Fresh off an April 28 meeting where they unveiled updated schematic designs to the public for the first time, the committee also heard from James LaPosta of project architect JCJ Architecture about changes to the design. LaPosta said the changes were minor.
With Gilbane now formally under contract, LaPosta said work will ramp up between architects and the construction management company, including refining the costs of everything within the designs and ensuring they fit within the $37.5 million bond approved by the City Council for the middle school project.
At its next meeting Wednesday, May 19, co-chairpersons Christine Dwyer and Dexter Legg said the JBC would vote on final schematic designs and would take a look at how phased construction and other costs are shaping up. Legg, also a member of the School Board, said the board will then take up the phasing recommendation for construction because of its direct impact on programming.