News

Successful Bid Day for Plum Borough School District

The Pivik Site as of July 25, 2011

August 2011 - Bids were received in March for the new Pivik Elementary project for Plum Borough School District. This new 75,000 square foot elementary school, designed by L. Robert Kimball a CDI Company, is being built across School Road from the existing 1920s vintage structure. Boasting the latest in K-12 educational design, this new facility contains classrooms, music and art labs, a cafeteria and a full-size gymnasium.

Pivik Elementary was one of the last projects to qualify for the Pennsylvania Department of Education‘s single prime waiver. By law, school construction projects are subject to the Separations Act of 1913, which requires the district to solicit separate bids for general trades, plumbing, mechanical and electrical work that exceed $4,000. However, recent court rulings have allowed districts to request a waiver exempting them from the multiple prime requirements. This single prime waiver allows the district to solicit bids from a single general contractor who would hold the contracts for all construction activity.

Eight bids were received on bid day, all of which were less than Massaro’s projected construction cost of $15,334,000. Nello Construction had the lowest bid at $14,093,000 which was within just 8.8% of the Massaro cost estimate. Bids two through five were all within 1.5% of the low bid. Bids two and three were within $5,100 of each other. Overall Massaro’s cost estimate was within 6.48% of the average bid.

These successful bid day results are proof that an effective preconstruction process, clear bid documents and open communication with the bidding public produce positive results for customers.