Tuesday afternoon, the Marblehead High School roof replacement subcommittee voted unanimously to recommend the School Committee accept an $8.9 million general contracting bid from Homer Contracting to handle the roof project — $2.1 million under budget. The subcommittee also voted to move forward with a roof recovering, rather than liquid-applied repairs.
In a surprise, the costs to recover the roof came in substantially lower than the liquid-applied approach.
“We ought to be celebrating a bit that the numbers are lower than expected,” said resident Sam Altreuter, who sits on the subcommittee.
Member Ralph Wallace added: “This was a successful bid and we’re serving the interests of the town of Marblehead well.”
School Committee member Henry Gwazda, who leads the subcommittee, asked why all three bids (including Homer’s) came in so much lower than expected.
“There is an incredibly competitive bidding market and that creates a scenario with bids beating their estimates,” said Brian Dakin of Left Field, the roof’s project manager.
“The market has plateaued and is probably correcting. The market’s hungry and people want to work through what they perceive is instability,” he added.
Gwazda will bring the recommendation to the School Committee at its Thursday night meeting. If the School Committee approves the bid, it will go to the Select Board for the final OK.
Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Facilities pointed out that the $8.9 million covers construction costs only.
“We also have costs associated with the design, bidding, project management, etc. All total, we will likely come in around $12M – which is $2M under the budget of $14M.”
Town Meeting approved borrowing a total of $14 million for the project (in separate votes in 2022 and 2025). The project is expected to begin after graduation this June and conclude by September. The roof has been leaking for years.
Editor Leigh Blander is an experienced TV, radio and print journalist.
