Will The Middle School Be Ready?

Mr. Richard Andrews, Vice President of DKW Architects, gave a Middle School Project Update to the Bertie County Board of Education yesterday. The initial issue he presented was a request by the contractor for a 36 day delay to the already delayed project, moving the completion day back to July 6, 2007. Since that would only be one month before the school is to be occupied, the Board of Education and the Superintendent were surprised. The original completion was supposed to be the previous December.

The rationale for the delay is the BOE request to re-design the school to eliminate some of the custom construction features and go to what is referred to as a pre-engineered building so that Bertie County could save money they needed for other projects. The contractor agreed to reduce his price with this redesign, and this request for a new schedule does not involve any money variance from that price agreement. It does seem logical that if the request to reduce money involves some additional time, that the contractor should be granted it. The question at this point is whether the contractor had an obligation to inform Bertie County of this delay at the same time the contractor agreed to the lower price. An alternative argument is that adjusting the price for the benefit of Bertie County should permit the contractor to look at the implications of schedule after the price agreement has been settled and inform Bertie County at this time.

The BOE Architect and BOE Lawyer will be talking with the contractor to discuss this issue as it relates to the terms and conditions of the contract. Since other contract changes are being requested to reduce the costs further, at least one question that has to be asked is who is driving these additional changes? A contract that is constantly changing is always at risk of delay, even when the changes reduce costs. Change is one of the most complex of the issues that most be dealt with in something as difficult as a construction project for a major building.

The BOE seemed surprised that the cost reduction would trigger the contractor's request to delay the building completion. What we need to understand is whether that surprise is reasonable or whether the BOE should have realized delay was possible as a result of their desire to reduce costs so they could spend the money on other projects. That last is the real key here. The BOE is not trying to save Bertie County tax payers any money. They are simply trying to cut costs so they can spend the money on other projects that they want.

At least one thing we know is that some of the presumed cost savings will not be realized since now they will be spent on lawyer fees to negotiate this time delay issue with the contractor.