BROOKINGS – Gray Construction Company was awarded by the Brookings School Board on Monday night the second bid package for the construction of a southern addition to Mickelson Middle School.
Its winning bid of $7,455,100 includes seven of nine alternates, which also came within the school district’s budget. Gray’s base bid for the work – minus the alternates – was $7,245,000.
The bid by Gray Construction Company, a Watertown business, was recommended for approval by architect group ATS&R.
It’s the latest step in the project, for which the school district is authorized to spend up to $24.6 million. The project aims to help the school facility cope with growing enrollment numbers within the school by adding classrooms, administrative space and upgrading security features through the addition and remodeling parts of the existing interior.
Brookings School District received a total of five bids on the project. The other bidding companies were Clark Drew Construction, Peska Construction, Puetz Construction and Visions Construction.
That the project drew such attention was a “wonderful” thing, according to Eric Anderson, an associate partner and architect at ATS&R. “The bids did come in within our budget, comfortably,” even with the alternates.
The base bids ranged in price from $7,245,000 to $8,247,500. Including all alternates, the range was from $7,614,600 to $8,598,050.
The list of alternates included in Gray Construction’s bid are: porcelain ceramic wall tile, digital wall graphics, rubber floor finish, acoustic ceiling baffles, bullet-resistant entry system, color aluminum frame anodizing to match existing frames and sun shading systems on south-facing windows to help cut energy costs.
With the second bid package approved, Mickelson Middle School Principal Tim Steffensen said although work on the addition is scheduled to begin by Nov. 16, Gray Construction was eager to start work early.
Since the second bid package is behind them now, the building project committee has begun to work on the third bid package, which would cover the remodeling of the school interior.
“That’s supposed to be approved in March of 2019, so we have a lot of work to do between now and then,” Steffensen said.
Work on remodeling the interior should begin in June 2019, and all work should conclude by deadline, set for Aug. 9, 2019.
Contact Eric Sandbulte at esandbulte@brookingsregister.com.
