CIB president cautious about under-budget bids for Bloomington Convention Center expansion: ‘We’re not finished yet.’

At its Wednesday (July 16) meeting, Monroe County’s capital improvement board (CIB) got good news about a recent round of bids for the Bloomington Convention Center expansion project. The recommended bids came in at just under $16.5 million for 11 packages that had an estimated budget of $22 million.

The news came from Josh Naugle of Weddle Brothers, which is the firm serving as the construction manager for the project. Naugle attributed cost difference to a competitive market and disciplined design management. Here’s a breakdown of the 11 packages:

• Asphalt – E&B Paving ($89,900)
• Façade Systems – Engineered Facades ($1,119,670)
• Roofing – Steve’s Roofing ($1,200,000)
• Glazing – Keusch Glass ($2,900,000)
• Drywall – Quality Walls and Ceilings ($3,278,000)
• Painting – Inline Painting ($309,585)
• Resilient Flooring – Consolidated Flooring ($531,400)
• Tiling – Santarossa ($318,000)
• Food Service – Great Lakes ($1,074,617)
• Electrical – Electric Plus ($4,677,500)
• A/V Systems – New Era ($830,637)

Naugle told the board that 55% of the project is now bid out. That’s based on the roughly $30 million that has been awarded in contracts to subcontractors, and approved for Weddle Brothers, compared to the budget line for Weddle Brothers, which is $54 million. The total project budget is about $70 million.

Despite the positive news, board president John Whikehart cautioned against premature celebration. “We’re not finished yet,” he said, alluding to the fact that several packages are still out for bid, with results expected at a special CIB meeting on July 30. Some packages were rebid to ensure more competitive pricing after initially attracting only a single bidder.

The packages that were put out for a second round of bidding include landscaping, site concrete, masonry, general trades, plumbing, mechanical, and fire protection.

Not all decisions were based strictly on the lowest bid. For example, in the AV systems package, the recommended bid went to New Era, whose bid was about $15,000 higher than the lowest competitor, Force Tech. “New Era had a very comprehensive scope. They were coordinated very well with Electric Plus, the electrical bidder, and there were some errors on Force Tech’s bid form,” Naugle said. “We felt our recommendation would be to go with New Era in this case, even though they’re not the low dollar bidder.”

Board members were interested in the spread between high and low bids in certain packages, like roofing. The low bid was from Steve’s Roofing at $1.2 million, but there was a bid for about $2.13 million from Danco Roofing. The estimated budget for the roofing package was $2.88 million—a lot higher than the highest bid.

“Roofing is an interesting scope of work,” Naugle said, explaining that prices have fluctuated significantly in recent years. “We’ve seen over the past couple years a large spike in the numbers, where it was up to around $40 a square foot for roofing, and now we’re seeing it come back down to 15 to 20, even under.” Naugle added, “In this project here, it’s a large enough roof that I think you get some economy of scale that gives a better price.”

The size of the roof stems from the roughly 60,000 square feet that is to be added to the existing 40,000-square-foot facility. The expansion will be located east of the current building, across College Avenue.

Board members wanted to know if any local contractors were among those who were recommended for bids. Naugle named E&B Paving, Steve’s Roofing, and Electric Plus as Bloomington-based contractors. The rest are from Indianapolis, he said.

Before Naugle gave his presentation, Whikehart told the board that six of the 11 recommended awards went to union contractors, with the remaining five going to non-union firms. The topic of union labor has been a part of the board’s considerations, as it has opted not for for prequalification criteria instead of a project labor agreement (PLA).

The information from Whikehart came in the context of his report as president to his board colleagues about actions he’d taken as president, which included the fact that he had granted exemptions from board’s prequalification requirements to the non-union contractors. Those exemptions had been based on the same consideration as exemptions he had granted in a previous round of bidding: A smaller workforce size made it impractical to maintain an apprenticeship program, which is a standard union requirement, according to Whikehart.

Also at Wednesday’s meeting the board got an update on the maintenance of traffic plan (MOT) for the upcoming start of construction, which showed visible signs of work on Wednesday, as workers were setting up barriers along 3rd Street where the southern eastbound lane has been closed next to the construction site. The sidewalk is closed, so the barriers are meant to protect pedestrians from car traffic, as they walk along the closed traffic lane.