A look into the Longmeadow Middle School enabling phase construction.
Photo credit: ELCAT01028
LONGMEADOW — The new Longmeadow Middle School enabling phases are well underway and project managers are preparing for when large-scale construction begins in September.
Colliers Project Manager Adam Dalessio, Jones Whitsett Architects Principal Kristian Whitsett and Fontaine Bros. Project Executive Jason Boudreau provided project updates to the Middle School Building Committee at its meeting on July 8.
Dalessio’s presentation split the timeline into seven Massachusetts School Building Authority modules, with the middle school currently on module six — detailed design. Module seven — construction — begins in September and continues for 32 months into 2028. The schedule is subject to change.
The plumbing enabling phase involves removing Williams Middle School’s underground gas main from the new school’s construction area and moving it to the roof. The work will cost $28,050.
Colliers conducted a qualification process to put the work out to bid, receiving Harold Brothers, General Mechanical, Boulanger’s, BG Mechanical, Harborview and TJ Conway as qualified bidders. KMD, Royal Steam, Kleeberg and Stallion did not qualify.
“The companies that did not get qualified were based on experience,” Dalessio said. “Some of them were missing some of the information in the qualification packets, those types of things. We feel that we have a good selection of qualified bidders here for when this goes out.”
The committee unanimously approved the qualified bidders in order to continue with the request for proposal process, allowing qualifiers to start submitting bids.
Dalessio also provided a financial status report, detailing the budget through each phase. The anticipated budget is around $151.5 million, which the MSBA and the town approved. The paid to date total is around $5.2 million.
Whitsett gave a design update and said the 90% cost estimates are set, citing it as a major milestone with 507 sheets of drawings and 3,254 pages of specifications.
The drawing sheets cover the floor plans and are duplicated to add details like electrical, lighting, alarm systems and technology.
“We did it at schematic design and that’s what set the budget,” Whitsett said. “We did it again in design development to see how we’re tracking. We did it at 60% [construction documents], and then this is at 90% CDs. This is our last check-in with our cost estimators to make sure we’re still tracking before that final bid package that [Dalessio] was talking about.”
Dalessio added that the estimates so far have been doing well with budget tracking, and that they’re working with the tax consultants to ensure rebates at the end of the project.
Boudreau said this was the first “proper construction update” and that a lot has happened with on-site and off-site work over the past month, adding that everything is going great and is on schedule.
“We’ve mobilized with site fencing, you can see all that,” Boudreau said. “Inside the fence line, we have erosion controls for the civil and rain water containment on the site. We started stripping top soil and really been prepping for where the future driveway is going to be coming in off of [Williams Street]. You’ll see our trailers have just gotten there and set up over the past couple of days and we’re starting to coordinate electrical power and things like that.”
This work is a part of enabling phase 1A, which will continue through the summer. It will also include Williams Street improvements, such as road widening, drainage work, fencing adjustments, landscaping and line painting. Boudreau said utility deliveries are underway.
“Within the next couple weeks we’re going to be all wrapped up,” Boudreau said. “There is some drainage work that we just started saw-cutting for in Williams Street, so you’ll start to see that work happening over the next few days and probably be wrapped up in under two weeks.”
Project updates as they occur can be found at longmeadow.k12.ma.us/school-committee/middle-school-building-project.
