MOUNT VERNON — The final price tag for Mount Vernon’s new police station is set at roughly $26.5 million.
City council members in a special meeting on Monday approved Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) #2 of $20,430,427. They approved GMP #1, worth $6,057,876, in July.
GMP #1 covered initial site environmental requirements and early procurement for long-lead-time items. Cigarette Parks, senior vice president with Pizzuti Solutions, said GMP #1 represented about 20% of the project.
GMP #2 represents everything from site work through the building pad, vertical construction, closeout and turning the building over to the city.
“Since this is a [construction manager] at risk project, it is the sum total of your project all in, notwithstanding any material changes that would be the result of owner-driven enhancements to the project where the funds included in GMP #1 cannot be responsive,” she said.
“But for the project that we know now, what is designed and what has been accepted by the the team, the owner, the owner’s rep, the design team and the police department, this is your project.”
Unsuitable soils adds to the cost
GMP #2 came in $615,181 higher than anticipated because of unsuitable soil at the building site.
Unsuitable soils — sand, clay, sandstone, limestone or some combination — cannot support a building’s weight. Parks said such soils are common in Ohio and the Midwest.
“We have to be able to reach a compaction level that can withstand the weight of the building, putting it in its most basic terms,” Parks said.
When the city identified the Sychar Road parcel as the site of the new station, geotechnical engineering firm Terracon conducted preliminary borings.
The borings referenced uncompacted soils but did not address the ability to compact them.
Once the contractor started excavating, crews discovered excavators could not compact the soil enough to achieve the strength needed to support a building.
Parks said the team evaluated options and chose cement stabilization.
Cement, in this case 4 percent, is mixed with the soil. When it bonds with the soil and moisture, it creates a stronger, stiffer base.
Parks said cement stabilization is the most cost-effective option that allows contractors to stay on schedule.
“If we hadn’t done that and instead deferred to something like hedging our bets on lime stabilization or trying to find enough soil to replace the unsuitable soils on site, we would have essentially invalidated the bids that we have that are behind the numbers with GMP #2, and all the wheels would have fallen off our project,” she said.
The benefits of a CMAR
Parks previously said the primary benefit of the construction manager at risk (CMAR) model is the fixed cost, excluding costs related to an act of God or city-driven changes.
“The construction manager is saying based on the design and what has been accepted by the project owner, the amount that’s in the GMP is the cost of your project, period,” she said Monday.
She also said the GMP has “layers of insulation,” such as $373,000 in contingency funds for unforeseen conditions.
Another layer is the GMP includes high-end, “not-to-exceed” allowance dollars on some items which cannot be priced until executing that work.
Parks said ignoring Terracon’s recommendation to modify the soil could have shifted risk from the CMAR to the city. Additionally, CK Construction, along with other contractors, could have pulled out of its contract.
“In any of those scenarios, our project would have become a nonproject, and the risk would have shifted back over to Mount Vernon,” she said.
Safety-Service Director Tanner Salyers said the city ran into unsuitable soils when building its salt barn on Old Delaware Road and remediating the Knox Cattle Company dam on Yauger Road.
Cost is higher than anticipated, lower than original estimate
Initial estimates for the new station were around $29 million.
After refining the design, the estimate was $26 million.
In March, council members authorized the city to sell up to $29 million in notes or bonds. The city issued a one-year note in June for $26,940,000.
Andrew Brossart of Bradley Payne, the city’s financial advisor, previously said the city will reevaluate interest rates when the note is due and decide whether to take out another one-year note or convert to bonds.
Parks said the CMAR, CK Construction, as well as subcontractors are obligated to provide a warranty when they complete the project.
Additionally, the project has an 11-month walk-through, which means the project team, owner, owner’s rep, CMAR, design team and the tenant agency will walk the building looking for cracks, doors that will not close and other items needing repaired.
Councilman Dale Miller noted that 11 months is not enough time for a foundation issue to appear.
“I’m not trying to play the devil’s advocate here. I just want to overly ensure that since we know we have this problem and we’re taking steps to remedy it, is there anything further that we could do or should do to make sure that these modifications are going to be more than enough to address the issue at hand,” he said.
Parks said the 4 percent cement stabilization represents the best option available to modify the soil conditions without completely replacing the soil on site.
