In a nutshell
The approximately $9.8 million construction proposal from QA Construction was the only one Bastrop County received.
“This proposed pricing is not considered fair and reasonable,” Leon Scaife, a purchasing agent for Bastrop County, said in a staff report.
The budget, he emphasized, is about $4 million.
“A lot of the [45] contractors that showed up knew right off the bat that [this project] was outside of their wheelhouse, but we expected more than one [proposal] to come in for this,” Scaife said.
Precinct 2 Commissioner Clara Beckett reflected on past proposals for other projects.
“When we do get multiple bids, there’s a huge disparity between low and high,” she said.
Some background
Scaife previously discussed the scope of each project, which Bastrop County hired Architexas to design in 2024.
Base work for the HVAC replacement project will include:
- Replacement of the HVAC systems in the Bastrop County Courthouse
- Extending one of the existing stairs in the annex building to access the roof
- Structural steel modifications to the annex building to support new stair penthouse and new steel dunnage to support rooftop HVAC units
- Asbestos and lead abatement
- Tear off of sheet metal roofing systems and replacement with thermoplastic polyolefin and standing seam sheet metal roofing systems
- Replacement of sheet metal drainage system, including gutters, downspouts and conductor heads
- Replacement of roof hatch
- Removal and restoration of lightning protection system
Both projects—expected to take 565 calendar days to complete—will be paid for with Capital Improvement Plan funds and certificates of obligation, according to county documents.
The outlook
The project will be rebid through BuyBoard, a purchasing cooperative, to utilize pre-bid contracts with manufacturers, according to county documents.
