Bids for Project 2 at Oak Park and River Forest High School came in a little more than $1.3 million under budget, which will likely allow the school to add more than $1.2 million in upgrades to the project to tear down the southeast portion of the school and rebuild it with a new swimming pool, dance studio, third floor gym, and other new spaces.
The overall budget for Project 2 is set at nearly $102 million. The portion of the project that was bid out was budgeted at $80,656,596, but bids came in at $79,352,361 including a $300,000 placeholder for athletic equipment which was rebid. The remaining $21.4 million for Project 2 covers owner costs, soft costs, fees for construction manager Gilbane and architectural firm FGM and other costs that do not go out to bid.
“We had a very encouraging bid day,” Anthony Arbogast, the assistant superintendent for business services, told the school board at the March 7 Committee of the Whole meeting.
The school received 87 bids for 29 bid packages. Five contractors who submitted low bids were allowed to withdraw their bids because they didn’t have the scope to do the work.
The upgrades that the school board is likely to approve at their March 21 meeting include $457,873 for construction of a central stairway and communication desk to allow easier access to the second floor, which is where the pool balcony is located. This would relieve congestion at crowded events and be an aesthetic improvement. Without the center stairway access to the second floor would be limited to the stairways at the east and west ends of the building as it is in most of the rest of the school.
“It will make it faster and easier to get up to the second floor,” said lead architect Alyson Sternquist.
Supt. Greg Johnson said that the stairway will be functional and look good.
“It does have a clear aesthetic use, but it will absolutely have value,” Johnson said. “It is not something that is purely aesthetic.”
Another upgrade, expected to cost $235,000, would be to convert the existing west pool locker rooms to become part of the new trainer’s room. This would at least triple the size the new trainer’s room and allow for more cardio equipment and a more spacious and functional room overall.
Another improvement likely to be approved is spending $230,295 to have epoxy flooring for the new swimming pool deck area, pool locker rooms, and pool support areas instead of brushed concrete flooring. This will allow easier cleaning of the floors and probably extend the life of the floor as well as be an aesthetic improvement over brushed concrete flooring.
Another upgrade likely to be improved is spending an additional $283,100 to add a motorized divider wall within the dance studio that will allow the room to be divided into two separate spaces. A motorized divider is safer and easier to operate than a mechanical divider that must be put into place manually.
The final upgrade likely to be improved is spending an additional $55,000 to upgrade to PVC roofing material for the new construction. PVC roofing is a slight upgrade to the base bid roofing system. Another alternative, which the school board did not seem very interested in, was to spend an additional $529,890 to install a Derbigum roofing system, which is a three-ply roof compared to the single-ply of the base bid and the PVC roof. A Derbigum roof would carry a 30-year warranty compared to the 25-year warranty of the base bid roof and the PVC roof. Board members seemed not to think that the slight increase in the length of the warranty was worth the additional cost. The current rook at OPRF is a combination of Derbigum roofing and PVC roofing materials.
PVC roofing is low maintenance and energy efficient, so a PVC roof will be consistent with the current OPRF roof.
Board members were happy that the bids came in under budget so that these upgrades, which were initially part of the design but cut last fall to cut costs, can be restored.
“These are things the administration wishes they have included and now they can,” said school board member Tim Brandhorst.
School board member Audrey Williams-Lee added that she wants to have a school that is both functional and beautiful.
Correction March 13, 11:41 a.m.: An earlier version of this story misstated the cost of Project 2. It is $102 million. We apologize for the error.
