Bids awarded, construction to begin on Cassville Early Childhood Development Center
October 23, 2019
Vinnie Roberts
At a meeting of the Cassville School Board on Thursday, October 17, the board voted to move forward on another project under the scope of Vision 150. Since the bond measure was passed during the last school year, one of the key elements of the planning has been the Early Childhood Development Center, a new, larger facility that would replace the current one located within Eunice Thomas Elementary.
According to Cassville superintendent, Dr. Richard Asbill, the construction for this facility will begin soon.
“We’ll start earthwork in the next two to three weeks on the Early Childhood Center,” explained Asbill. “We have about a 10 to 12 month construction window. We should be substantially complete by either May or June of 2020.”
Asbill explained that the process of contracting the work for this operation came easily due to the school’s ability to work with a construction management firm.
“The district is pursuing this project under a process called Construction Management At Risk (CMR),” explained Asbill. “Normally, we would want to decide to do something and then, we would have an architect develop a set of plans, we’d get a variety of bids for that whole package. The district would then award the lowest and best value bid. Then we would have that company build the project for us.
“In construction management, we approach the project in what we view is a much better way of evaluating the project’s needs. We select a management firm to work as our architect in the district’s best interest.”
After the passing of Vision 150 on April 2, the school began working with Branco Enterprises and Paragon Architecture, two construction firms based in Springfield, to address the multiple construction needs around the district.
“In this case, Paragon, our architect, and Branco were selected to evaluate our Vision 150 Project needs together,” explained Asbill. “Rather than after the fact, the architect is developing plans and Branco is able to evaluate those plans pre-bid and come up with cost-saving and efficiency ideas. Our hope in this process is that the end goal saves the tax-payer money by making it more budget friendly.
“We know going in that we’ve had pre-work and pre-design conversations,” said Asbill. “That should give contractors interested in the projects a much clearer vision, so that they’re bidding on a realistic vision of the work.”
According to the Superintendent, having Branco evaluating the projects before construction begins and the bids are awarded gives the district the opportunity to save money. They do this by evaluating the project beforehand, eliminating potentially costly portions of the construction and working with other contractors that specialize in the construction fields required.
“What happens is Branco will develop what’s called a Gross Maximum Price (GMP) and we define projects based on that,” he explained. “They are able to evaluate our project needs without going over-budget or giving us any surprises, because the project manager and construction manager have been working together from the very beginning.”
The first portion of the Early Childhood Development Center work will involve the initial earthwork to prepare the grounds for construction, initial concrete work, and the steel work that will define the early portions of the structure.
For this portion of the project, Branco had originally quoted the district a GMP of $477,003. According to Asbill, Branco’s ability to keep a majority of the work in-house, as well as work with specialized contractor allowed the project to come in at the significantly cheaper price of $425,381.
According to Asbill, the bids on these early construction efforts were awarded primarily to Branco, who will handle the earthwork and concrete work. Branco will be assisted in this effort by Design Fabrication Steel, another Springfield company, who will handle the steel supply and construction.
“Branco is the construction manager, and they facilitate all of that work,” Asbill explained. “They’ll work with Design Fabrication, which is one of the groups that will also be doing that work. They’ll be handling the steel and the steel construction.”
Construction is set to begin within the next two to three weeks, according Asbill. The construction will involve closing off a portion of the Elementary playground, as well as removing one of its oldest structures, the wooden cabin near the basketball court.
For any questions regarding this or other future construction projects, contact the district at (417) 847-2221.
Vinnie Roberts
At a meeting of the Cassville School Board on Thursday, October 17, the board voted to move forward on another project under the scope of Vision 150. Since the bond measure was passed during the last school year, one of the key elements of the planning has been the Early Childhood Development Center, a new, larger facility that would replace the current one located within Eunice Thomas Elementary.
According to Cassville superintendent, Dr. Richard Asbill, the construction for this facility will begin soon.
“We’ll start earthwork in the next two to three weeks on the Early Childhood Center,” explained Asbill. “We have about a 10 to 12 month construction window. We should be substantially complete by either May or June of 2020.”
Asbill explained that the process of contracting the work for this operation came easily due to the school’s ability to work with a construction management firm.
“The district is pursuing this project under a process called Construction Management At Risk (CMR),” explained Asbill. “Normally, we would want to decide to do something and then, we would have an architect develop a set of plans, we’d get a variety of bids for that whole package. The district would then award the lowest and best value bid. Then we would have that company build the project for us.
“In construction management, we approach the project in what we view is a much better way of evaluating the project’s needs. We select a management firm to work as our architect in the district’s best interest.”
After the passing of Vision 150 on April 2, the school began working with Branco Enterprises and Paragon Architecture, two construction firms based in Springfield, to address the multiple construction needs around the district.
“In this case, Paragon, our architect, and Branco were selected to evaluate our Vision 150 Project needs together,” explained Asbill. “Rather than after the fact, the architect is developing plans and Branco is able to evaluate those plans pre-bid and come up with cost-saving and efficiency ideas. Our hope in this process is that the end goal saves the tax-payer money by making it more budget friendly.
“We know going in that we’ve had pre-work and pre-design conversations,” said Asbill. “That should give contractors interested in the projects a much clearer vision, so that they’re bidding on a realistic vision of the work.”
According to the Superintendent, having Branco evaluating the projects before construction begins and the bids are awarded gives the district the opportunity to save money. They do this by evaluating the project beforehand, eliminating potentially costly portions of the construction and working with other contractors that specialize in the construction fields required.
“What happens is Branco will develop what’s called a Gross Maximum Price (GMP) and we define projects based on that,” he explained. “They are able to evaluate our project needs without going over-budget or giving us any surprises, because the project manager and construction manager have been working together from the very beginning.”
The first portion of the Early Childhood Development Center work will involve the initial earthwork to prepare the grounds for construction, initial concrete work, and the steel work that will define the early portions of the structure.
For this portion of the project, Branco had originally quoted the district a GMP of $477,003. According to Asbill, Branco’s ability to keep a majority of the work in-house, as well as work with specialized contractor allowed the project to come in at the significantly cheaper price of $425,381.
According to Asbill, the bids on these early construction efforts were awarded primarily to Branco, who will handle the earthwork and concrete work. Branco will be assisted in this effort by Design Fabrication Steel, another Springfield company, who will handle the steel supply and construction.
“Branco is the construction manager, and they facilitate all of that work,” Asbill explained. “They’ll work with Design Fabrication, which is one of the groups that will also be doing that work. They’ll be handling the steel and the steel construction.”
Construction is set to begin within the next two to three weeks, according Asbill. The construction will involve closing off a portion of the Elementary playground, as well as removing one of its oldest structures, the wooden cabin near the basketball court.
For any questions regarding this or other future construction projects, contact the district at (417) 847-2221.
