Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

I believe we hired URS (Fix's buddy)to manage the construction of the sewer plant. He receomends redesign to save us big bucks only to find that we was way off on the cost savings and we proaby didn't get as good of product in the end. Maybe too many Chiefs here.

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SERVICE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL
CITY HALL, 100 LOCKVILLE ROAD
WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2009
REGULAR MEETING
7:50 P.M.
ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT CAPITAL PROJECTS.
A. WASTEWATER

(1) Wastewater Plant Expansion ?– Update. Ms. Frommer stated there is a lot of activity right now, and generally speaking the project is about 20 to 25 percent completed and is still slated for its current completion date. She stated as this Committee may recall, right after the project was awarded, URS did a value engineering review of some items. She stated one of the things that came up during the plan review and after the bid, was did we need a new grit building or could we modify the old one. She stated this Committee authorized some additional design up to $40,000 to engineer a plan to keep the current facility and modify it slightly, and she understood about $30,000 of that was spent. She stated that was engineered, and provided to the contractor. Ms Frommer continued that URS estimated in the realm of up to $400,000 they would like to see the contractor deduct. She stated the contractors information came back with an $84,000 deduct. Mr. Drobina stated his feeling was that being the change order is so little, not to mess with the old structure, trying to rehab it, but to build a new one. Mr. Wisniewski stated then we wasted $30,000. Mr. Drobina stated the contractor is supposed to look at his numbers again to see if he can do better, but he would be surprised if he came back at a number large enough to make that big a difference. Ms Frommer stated this kind of response from a contractor told her there was something else going on, because URS?’s estimate was actually an itemized estima

Cut back on words allowed

Ms Frommer stated this kind of response from a contractor told her there was something else going on, because URS?’s estimate was actually an itemized estimate that brought the numbers up to the magnitude they were in, and resulted in them recommending you do this. Ms Frommer stated it seemed there were some conversations to be had with the contractor and a progress meeting is scheduled for May 26th and it will be discussed at that time. Mr. Wisniewski stated either URS was inflating the savings or the contractor is significantly devaluing it, but there is a serious disconnect that needs to be resolved. Mr. Wisniewski stated he would like to have the information for that meeting sent to him as he might want to attend. Mr. Sauer clarified that this is a topic for that meeting and URS will also be in attendance. Ms Frommer stated there have been some work quality issues that have been dealt with that she had no doubt had some impact on the contractor?’s bottom line. She stated the challenge lies between URS and the contractor?’s numbers.