Flood damaged Bloomington fire station gets $4.5M in construction contracts OK’d for major renovation
For the last two and a half years, Bloomington’s main fire station on 4th Street has sat unused for fire operations. That’s because it was damaged in the flood of June 2021.
But construction work on the existing 4th Street station, to put Station 1 back into service, is set to start on Dec. 1.
About $4.5 million in construction contracts for the work was approved by Bloomington’s board of public works at its regular Tuesday meeting.
In an email responding to a B Square question, fire chief Jason Moore called the work “a much needed public safety project that has been in the works since the flood in 2021.”
Serving as a temporary downtown fire station for the last two and a half years has been the former Bunger & Robertson building at 4th and College, which was outfitted with a temporary structure that serves as a firetruck bay.
Getting a permanent station back online in the downtown area is crucial for the department to maintain its rating of 1 on the Insurance Service Office, Inc. (ISO) scale. That’s the highest rating on the ISO scale.
Here’s the breakdown on the construction contracts, which were approved without controversy by Bloomington’s three-member board of public works: Fox Construction (general trades) $2,445,590; Reed and Sons (site work) $459,000; HFI (mechanical and plumbing) $1,193,400; Electric Plus (electrical) $465,000.
The contracts were awarded through a competitive bidding process, Moore told the board on Tuesday.
The work will be paid for from a $29-million bond that was issued by the city to cover several public safety projects, including the renovation of Showers West, a part of the recently acquired portion of the city hall building. Showers West is envisioned by Bloomington mayor John Hamilton’s administration as the future home for the city’s police operations.
The total of about $4.5 million in contracts is about $1 million less than the estimates described to the city council in fall of 2022, when the Hamilton administration asked for the issuance of the $29 million in bonds. At that time, the cost of Station 1 renovation was estimated at up to $5.5 million. That figure was called “a conservative estimate” with the probable cost estimated at between $5 million to $5.4 million.
Responding to an emailed B Square question, Moore wrote: “The original estimate had several unknown variables and through our due diligence in material selection/design decisions, we were able to reduce the project cost by nearly $1 million.”
Moore added, “We did not sacrifice quality or function.” Moore pointed to the temporary station as eliminating the need to phase the construction, which translates into a cost savings. Moore credited the architect/engineering firm (Martin-Riley) and construction management firm (Weddle Bros) for their help in balancing fire protection requirements against the fiscal impact.
At one point it was believed that Station 1 would need to be completely demolished and rebuilt from scratch. But Moore told the board on Tuesday that the renovation would tear down just a portion of the building, leaving a part of it standing.
The renovation project will fill in the existing basement. About that choice, Moore told the board: “The only way I can promise that the basement will never flood again is: It will not have one.”
The height of the building will increase to three stories, Moore said, but the new building will be contained within the existing footprint of the building.
Currently, the Station 1 bays serve as a storage location for two reserve fire trucks. During the construction, Moore told The B Square that Ellettsville’s fire department has agreed to let Bloomington store one of the trucks there. The other truck will be stored at the Bloomington police department’s training facility on South Walnut Street, Moore said.
