School system central office bids higher than expected

Thursday, October 04, 2012 1:23 AM | Printer friendly version | E-mail to a friend | Comments

By Sarah Campbell

scampbell@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY - Bids for construction of the Rowan-Salisbury School System's downtown central office building came in higher than anticipated.

"I wish I could say that I have perfect news or great news, but I can't," architect Bill Burgin told school board members during a work session Wednesday. "I am optimistic that I can get us to where we need to be."

The lowest bid of about $7.4 million, or $152 per square foot, for the base building came from Matthews Construction. That's $1.4 million higher than the $6 million budget approved by the Rowan County Board of Commissioners.

The base design is a three-story, 48,818 square-foot facility. It does not include space for the exceptional children's department, which will move from rented space at Corporate Square to the Ellis Street administrative office.

"That really represents from my perspective the minimum building that you need. It does allow for about 1,500- or 2,000-square-feet of growth," he said.

Burgin said to get the bids low enough to build the base structure, he needs to strip the infrastructure he included to make future expansions more cost-efficient. That includes ditching additional electrical capacity and about 40 piles that were going to be added to the foundation, which means the columns along the common wall won't be strong enough to attach an addition in the future.

"You can't get to $6 million without making some changes," he said.

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School system central office bids higher than expected